Morrissey & Marr, Here I Come! (Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths
Date:	15/08/09 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Almost every track is a cracker, relentlessly brilliant

Disadvantages: Death of a Disco Dancer may fail to excite

The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

Producer: Johnny Marr, Morrissey and Stephen Street

A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours
I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
Death of a Disco Dancer
Girlfriend in a Coma
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Unhappy Birthday
Paint a Vulgar Picture
Death at One's Elbow
I Won't Share You

Strangeways, Here We Come is the fourth and final studio album by The Smiths. The album gets its title from Manchester's notorious HM Prison (previously known as Strangeways Prison, until it was renamed in the 1990s).

To my way of thinking this is the most varied and diverse album by The Smiths and had the band not split up just before Strangeway's release, they would have been looking forward to a very positive future. Johnny Marr had started playing around with a synthesiser for this release and he credits all strings and saxophone arrangements to Orchestrazia Ardwick, but in reality this was a fictional institute and was none other than Marr himself operating under an alias. Such is the out of character nature of this record that Morrissey even plucks up the courage to play the piano on Death of a Disco Dancer.

Oh how I love the opening track to Strangeways, A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours. The jaunty and exuberant tendencies of this track set a high watermark for the rest of the record to reach; this is mainly down to Marr's playful piano work and fruity percussion arrangements. The vocals are brought to you with a real sense of vehemence, "They said there's too much caffeine in your bloodstream and a lack of real spice in your life", and then Mozza adds humorously, "Leave me alone because I'm alright, Dad." It is certainly one of their best recordings; not something to be scoffed out when considering the consistently high quality of this band's output in such a short space of time.

Second track and second single to be released from the album, I Started Something I Couldn't Finish, continues things in a big way and features one of Marr's hardest rock riffs. Morrissey courageously broadcasts the following, "I grabbed you by the gilded beams; this is what tradition means!"

The only song on the album which I cannot warm to is Death of a Disco Dancer. It's not because of Morrissey's jokey piano playing (far from it), but because rather the atmosphere is so turned down and mellow it just feels too wide of the mark after the invigorating start to the album. The last thing I want is the cold shower of Death of a Disco Dancer. Anyway, my complaints are over and after all is said and done it is still perfectly listenable.

First single to be released from the album was the ingeniously titled Girlfriend in a Coma. This song could actually be pinpointed as the end of Marr and Morrissey's working relationship - and indeed the end of The Smiths - as Morrissey insisted on including a Cilla Black cover as one of the song's b-sides, much to Marr's exasperation. Idiotic people who don't know what is good for them will tell you, "Girlfriend in a Coma is SO depressing..." But the clever ones among you will be a witness to Morrissey's delightful sledgehammer wit. Oh, the song also features some of Marr's most comprehensive guitar work and clocking in at barely 2 minutes it is a pop gem.

If you only know the Mark Ronson & Daniel Merriweather rendition of Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before you need working on. There is one thing that I want to get straight here: Mark Ronson and Daniel Merriweather butchered this song and if you actually enjoy it more than the original I wish all of the Biblical plagues upon you. As for the Morrissey & Marr original, what a thing of beauty! The musicianship featured here is magnificent and really shows that The Smiths were showing no signs of slowing down in their final moments. The lyrics are forward-looking and some of Morrissey's best, "I was detained, I was restrained, and (he) broke my spleen and broke my knee and then he really lays into me!"

The Music Industry-baiting Paint a Vulgar Picture has one of the catchiest melodies on the album, with Marr's rhythm guitar setting a new standard for indie rockers the world over. Morrissey has such a keen eye for observations and he has never written anything quite as detailed and venomous as this. Of course, there is something faintly ironic about Morrissey yelling "Re-issue, re-package" when evaluating this album in the same year that two of his solo albums have been re-issued and re-released. Is it the album's most noteworthy song? Most probably, yes.

The free-for-all harmonica party of Death at One's Elbow provides a relatively light moment of humour when placed amongst all the other hard-hitting tales. How is it humorous? Well, take this excerpt, "Oh Glen, don't come to the house tonight... because there's someone here who'll take a hatchet to your ear!" A classic Morrissey lyric if ever I saw one!

When considering that this would be the last Smiths' record, it is fitting that Morrissey & Marr would close the album with a track entitled I Won't Share You. Drummer Mike Joyce sits this one out and you can scarcely hear Andy Rourke's mellow bass work, so this is essentially Morrissey serenading Marr, as he plays his guitar in one final act of cooperation. One of the band's most beautiful ballads, this blissful acoustic tragedy brings Strangeways - and indeed the band's entire career - full-circle and to a fitting close.

While critics usually pine over the previous Smiths' studio album, The Queen Is Dead, Strangeways, Here We Come isn't all that far behind where quality is concerned and in my eyes it makes for another classic album.

9/10

Daniel Kemp

Read more reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: The Smiths' swansong!