The Queen is Dead (medium review)

The Queen is Dead

The third studio release by the English alternative band The Smiths, The Queen is dead, has had a long reputation as being their best record.   Recorded in 1985 during several sporadic recording sessions, the album reached #2 in the UK albums chart and 70 on the Billboard 200 chart.  Johnny Marr and Morrisey wrote the bulk of these compositions in separate pieces with Morrissey adding lyrics to Marr’s musical arrangements.  The two were an absolutely wonderful writing pair, but at times this album can feel less like an album and more like a collection of songs.

This album offers a variety sounds and emotions.  Songs like “The boy with the thorn in his side” and “Cemetery gates” feature the familiar Jangly guitar and upbeat bass rhythms that made the band famous.  Their ability to take simple melodies and craft them into beautifully basic arrangements is brilliant.  Other songs like “The Queen is dead” and “Bigmouth strikes again” utilize a more liberal use of effects, notably delay, that foreshadow later works like “How soon is now” and other songs from their later album Louder than Bombs.  Still other songs like “Vicor in  tutu” and “There is a light that never goes out” seem to stand on their own and add a interesting break from the rest of the albums pace.

The problem is that these songs don't always work well together.  The fact that Marr and Morrisey wrote these songs 2 or 3 at a time is apparent.  The arrangement of tracks seems a bit arbitrary and can be uncomfortable at times.    Every single track on this album is a hit in its own right, but unfortunately this album lacks a unified quality that is arguably necessary to make a release like this worthy of being called a masterpiece.