"I Know It's Overrated" - The Queen Is Dead turns 30 - The Quietus

I Know It's Overrated: The Queen Is Dead Turns Thirty - The Quietus
Simon Price , June 13th, 2016 06:10

In the three decades since its release, The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead has repeatedly been hailed as the band's crowning achievement, and regularly features in lists of the greatest albums ever made. Lifelong Smiths fan Simon Price, however, is not so sure

 

[Anonymous]

It definitely has some catchy riffs and some humorous lyrics as usual, but it's the popular Smiths album and I've never been a fan of popular even when it comes to the Smiths. Apart from the title track the rest of the album is dare I say too pretty sound wise and lacks the guttural vibe of the debut album and MIM. I think it's great that people love TQID but it's not the quintessential Smiths sound for me.

Now Dislike

Well as an anon I've not the power to dislike anything. I get what your saying. For me it's the subject matter of the songs. I just think this album represents what was going in in moms world more specifically as a popular figure like in bigmouth. Funny song and sounds great but I'm not gonna relate to a song about press attacks in the same way I'm gonna relate to say I want the one I can't have etc. I still like the songs with stories and character studies but songs about British politics obviously aren't gonna matter as much as to someone who loves there etc and like I said above I don't relate personally as much to the achingly lonely side of his lyrics. I'd relate to a song like rusholme ruffians more so than a song like cemetery gates which tempers some of my love of the song. I also agree that I liked the more uptempo muscular music on say meat is murder with the rockabilly tinges more so that the jangle. Also I think it important to mention that these are smiths albums and I love them all and that these distinctions are small and not really important in the overall judgement of the album. I will say though that I'd put on louder than bombs before I put on the queen is dead

 

[Anonymous]

Why don't you like Bigmouth? because it's about press attacks? Where in the lyrics did you get that from?

First tell me where in my post it says I don't like bigmouth

 

[marred]

Well as an anon I've not the power to dislike anything. I get what your saying. For me it's the subject matter of the songs. I just think this album represents what was going in in moms world more specifically as a popular figure like in bigmouth. Funny song and sounds great but I'm not gonna relate to a song about press attacks in the same way I'm gonna relate to say I want the one I can't have etc. I still like the songs with stories and character studies but songs about British politics obviously aren't gonna matter as much as to someone who loves there etc and like I said above I don't relate personally as much to the achingly lonely side of his lyrics. I'd relate to a song like rusholme ruffians more so than a song like cemetery gates which tempers some of my love of the song. I also agree that I liked the more uptempo muscular music on say meat is murder with the rockabilly tinges more so that the jangle. Also I think it important to mention that these are smiths albums and I love them all and that these distinctions are small and not really important in the overall judgement of the album. I will say though that I'd put on louder than bombs before I put on the queen is dead

Same here, but it would be The World Won't Listen for me from this part of the world. And especially the Australian version with The Draize Train on it.

 

[Eder]

All smiths albums are superb and all smiths albums are in my top ten albums of all time.. i couldnt name my favourite because it changes everyday...
The queen is dead is a bloody masterpiece..

 

[Anonymous]

All smiths albums are superb and all smiths albums are in my top ten albums of all time.. i couldnt name my favourite because it changes everyday...
The queen is dead is a bloody masterpiece..

They're definetly all superb