The Queen Is Dead

In the U.K., music magazines and other listmakers usually rank The Queen Is Dead in the top 10 or so albums of all-time. Who knows what the critical consensus is elsewhere; it's certainly less beloved, and with good reason. The Smiths' masterpiece was made for England, for old Oscar Wilde and the uptight Anglican church, for double-decker bus crashes and, yes, breaking into Buckingham Palace to threaten monarchy with a rusty spanner. What's remarkable is that the Smiths forced American listeners to embrace British idioms and culture in a way that contemporaries U2 and the Cure never even attempted. Rather more like the Kinks than the Beatles, the Smiths relied on Anglophilia and scathing wit, and The Queen Is Dead showcases those attributes at the peak of Morrissey and Johnny Marr's powers. The album is well balanced between funny (the letter of resignation to a bumbling boss that is "Frankly, Mr. Shankly") and parodic ("Vicar In A Tutu") at one end of the scale, and self-pitying ("I Know It's Over") and romantically macabre (the die-by-your-side fantasy of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out") at the other. Sonically, producer Stephen Street raised The Queen Is Dead… read more »