Louder Than Bombs

Submitted by Richard Norbury on 27 April 2014 - 6:37pm

Cover:

Artist:

The Smiths

album-ID:

a_149

Nationality:

Year:

1 987

Release-year:

0000

Num-of-tracks:

Track-listing:

Is It Really So Strange?*Sheila Take a Bow*Shoplifters of the World Unite*Sweet and Tender Hooligan*Half a Person*London*Panic*Girl Afraid*Shakespeare's Sister*William, It Was Really Nothing*You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby*Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now*Ask*Golden Lights*Oscillate Wildly*These Things Take Time*Rubber Ring*Back to the Old House*Hand in Glove*Stretch Out and Wait*Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want*This Night Has Opened My Eyes*Unloveable*Asleep

Length-in-mins:

Nominator:

Bean

meeting-ID:

m_58

Now-num:

2 014

Spotify-URL:

45StnugV9WQMQwk4rRoTy8

Grooveshark-URL:

Louder+Than+Bombs/184796

Short-title:

louderThanBombs

nominator-ID:

u_14

Meeting-date:

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

MusicBrainz-URL:

329a3607-9b56-351c-84e7-c6f8f19d8056

Wikipedia-URL:

Louder_Than_Bombs

Spotify-link-type:

album

Discogs-URL:

Smiths-Louder-Than-Bombs/master/20975

Allmusic-URL:

louder-than-bombs-mw0000191781

guest-list data

108

109

117

86

reviewed by

Richard Norbury
80

reviewed by

Matthew Baker

Not definitive but plenty of good songs

5-10-13-21

Shows the strength of the band that so many of their big songs are missing yet this compilation is still so song. Good for a sing-a-long in the bedroom.
79

reviewed by

Glyn Lewis

I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour

12-13-17-18-21-23

There are loads of remarkable songs here, in what feels like an almost endless stream of their work. It does lack any real shape as an album and if it's possible to have too much of a good thing then this is probably an example of that.

I always saw Morrissey / Marr as a great double-act, there are obviously some of the finest lyrics ever written but I think these are great sounding, well arranged, clever bits of music that would still be special without the words. But I do wonder why Johnny Marr never seemed to manage to produce anything of note after and why are there no good Smiths covers that I've heard? Maybe that voice is doing more than we think, certainly I can hear every word and they're all worth hearing, but his voice is obviously one of the things people don't like. The other is that whole miserablist, woe-is-me trip which some people are very uncomfortable with. Personally, I find far it more uplifting than the opposite – the Hollywood happy ending, perfect teeth, upbeat, never to be attained dream – but each to his own, I guess.

It's wonderful as a collection to dip into but having played it quite a lot I'm not actually sure it is that good as an album to play through. It's too long and there aren’t many changes in direction, although there isn’t actually a bad track on it IMHO and yes I do include Golden Lights.
79

reviewed by

Neil Hornsey

Take me behind the disused railway line

5-7-10-12

14

Although this is an album for the fanatics, it's mostly top stuff which just shows the strength of their material. Apart from a few odd tracks towards the end of the album, this is a thoroughly enjoyable play, uplifting and sing-along-able throughout. They are great musicians, a true four piece who work so well together in the way that the Stone Roses did.

Glad to have discovered 'half a person' which is a gorgeous track.

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