The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come - Review

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On Strangeways, The Smiths looked forwards, not back, determined to prove their sound was far more nuanced and varied than just Stratocasters and Rickenbackers. That’s why I’ve come to cherish it most of all: it’s my favourite Smiths studio album because it’s the least traditionally Smiths-like, and if the appeal of this band has always partly lain in their obstinacy, then it’s the sound of them blowing a big fat raspberry at their former selves. Whenever history tries to recast them as a bunch of tutting Miss Havishams, it’s the more experimental and ambitious Strangeways that shows their refusal to stay in the past. As Marr later told Goddard: “I wanted us to shed that [old] skin and find a different direction.”

read Ben Hewitt's full review at The Quietus

The Quietus is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. The Quietus primarily features writings on music and film, as well as interviews with a wide range of notable artists and musicians. The magazine also occasionally includes pieces on literature, graphic novels, architecture, and TV series. The website is edited by John Doran, who claims that it caters for "the intelligent music fan between the age of 21 and, well, 73". Its staff list includes former writers for publications such as Melody Maker, Select, NME and Q, including journalist David Stubbs, BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, Professor Simon Frith and Simon Price among others.

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