Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

The Smiths
The Smiths tabs The Smiths discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

The Smiths guitar tabs

CD reviews

The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths

The Smiths - The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths Audio CD

A fair review of the The Smiths "The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Smiths reviews here, or go back to the The Smiths tabs.

Band: The Smiths
Title: The Sound of the Smiths: The Very Best of the Smiths
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-11-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Hand In Glove 2: This Charming Man 3: What Difference Does It Make(Peel Session Version) 4: Still III 5: Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now 6: William, It Was Really Nothing 7: How Soon Is Now? 8: Nowhere Fast 9: Shakespeare's Sister 10: Barbarism Begins At Home 11: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore 12: The Headmaster Ritual 13: The Boy With The Thorn In His Side 14: Bigmouth Strikes Again 15: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out 16: Panic 17: Ask 18: You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby 19: Shoplifters Of The World Unite 20: Sheila Take A Bow 21: Girlfriend In A Coma 22: I Started Something I Couldn't Finish 23: Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me 24: Jeane 25: Handsome Devil (Live) 26: This Charming Man (New York vocal) 27: Wonderful Woman 28: Back To The Old House 29: These Things Take Time 30: Girl Afraid 31: Please, Please Please Let Me Get What I Want 32: Stretch Out And Wait 33: Oscillate Wildly 34: Meat Is Murder (Live in Oxford) 35: Asleep 36: Money Changes Everything 37: The Queen Is Dead 38: Vicar In A Tutu 39: Cemetry Gates 40: Half A Person 41: Sweet And Tender Hooligan 42: I Keep Mine Hidden 43: Pretty Girls Make Graves(Troy Tate version) 44: Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before 45: What's The World (Live in Glasgow) 46: London (live in London)

Like an embarrassing uncle turning up at a family function
Occasionally hearing the odd song or two from The Smiths on radio once in a while is fine, but who would buy an entire album of this junk?
Here's the deal: the song titles are amusing and amongst the best ever written, the actual lyrics are so-so and range from maudlin to bleedin' obvious. This album is an embarrassing anachronism - a tribute to pretentious luddite music of the 1980s. The music is stock-standard unremarkable guitar-based Pop/Rock.

Overall, an album to play when guests stay too long or if one can't bring one's self to admit that one would really prefer listening to Karen Carpenter, but one still harbours the risible pretence that one is "cool".

Sounds Fine to Me
Because of that, I can't participate in the disputes over sound quality. First a disclaimer: Since I was mostly into jazz in the 1980s when The Smiths were in their prime, I have no idea how most of the songs here sounded before Rhino Records' hot masters were produced under the supervision of Johnny Marr for The Sound of the Smiths. But I have prior familiarity with about a third of the songs here and the hot masters sound just fine to me.
My experience with the music of The Smiths was quite limited as previously implied before I acquired this set. I was introduced to their music back in the 1980s and liked what I heard, but never got around to doing anything about it until I saw this recommended on amazon. So I took the opportunity to hear more of them and voila, a new Smiths fan was born.
One of the aspects of this CD set I enjoy most is that it shows the many musical moods of the Marr/Morrissey collaboration. I enjoy most everything here but my favorites are as follows:
Disc 1) Still Ill; Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now; How Soon is Now, which is one of my overall favorites; the energetic, howling Barbarism Begins at Home; The Headmaster Ritual; Bigmouth Strikes Again; the mopey There Is a Light That Never Goes Out; Panic, a hilarious song that mocks commercial music; and Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me.
Disc 2) This Charming Man, a version better than that presented on disc 1; Girl Afraid; Oscillate Wildly; the preachy but powerful Meat is Murder; the instrumental Money Changes Everything; Sweet and Tender Hooligan; and London.
If you already own most of The Smiths' prodigious output, then probably this set will not be for you. But if you are looking for a well-selected representative sample of the band's work, then The Sound of the Smiths may be just the thing. As for whether or not the selections meet your definition of "the very best" is for you to decide, but Rhino has given it a good shot. The CDs are housed in a quadrifold digipak and come with an attractive booklet featuring lots of pictures and song information, but alas no lyrics.

Doubleplusungood
It plays like a mediocre mix tape. The problem with this collection, aside form the hideous cover, is that the songs are taken out of context. I like listening to albums by The Smiths, not random singles on shuffle play. A boxed set would be nice as would a concise collection of B-sides and rarities. If you haven't bought this yet, skip it. It's neither for the curious nor the hardcore fan.

Backtrack

Being a huge EBTG fan, my interest was stoked by constant references from critics to the Smiths' influence on Thorn and Watt's flirtation with New Wave on the 1985 album, 'Love Not Money'. I picked this up with the sole intention of deciding for myself if they truly lived up to their reputation as one of the premier British bands of the 80s, having miraculously missed them on the airwaves completely back when they were still active in the music scene.

From the first song on 'The Sound of. . . ' I began to hear for myself the distinct sonic quality of the jangly guitars and Morissey's plaintive yet emotive vocals that EBTG aimed for in those early days, with all due respect to both bands. I was also elated to find 'Shakespeare's Sister' in the mix, having learnt that the name of Siobhan Fahey's power group (expertly spelled as 'Shakespears Sister') was inspired by that song.

Along the way, I also heard that familiar 'Charmed' tune, 'How Soon Is Now?" (arguably popularised again by Russian girlgroup Tatu in the noughties), as well as 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' (which I first heard on the single by Eddi Reader, Boo Hewerdine and Clive Gregson in the 90s), and all that was only on Disc 1. How did I miss this superb music growing up?

Am so spooked by this release I'm gonna check out New Order's reissues and finally get acquainted with Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' as part of my re-education of the 80s music that I missed.
.

some people are only good at complaining
miss morrissey "approved" the cover, and the colour choices are nice, buy beyond that, the packaging isn't exceptional. "hot mastered rubbish"? well, mr marr remastered the project himself, and despite what some of the relentlessly unhappy folk may say, it sounds truly amazing (perhaps they're listening to it on an aged sony discman). but the music! it's never sounded better. and if you're foolish enough to advise others not to buy simply because your own personal favourite song isn't on it - well, i'm sure if you write johnny an angry letter, he'll be sure to address your concerns most urgently.

buy it. go for the double-disc. it's a wonderful collection for fans old and new.

You can see a complete list of all The Smiths discography, or go back to the The Smiths tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.