Dev Avidon
Member of the Trade: Frost Audio
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- Feb 17, 2010
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Per Uncle Erik's request, here's a relatively brief chronological lowdown on the Smiths, and the relative nature of their studio recordings (I don't touch on the live album because I still can't find my copy...).
Their first two singles in 1983 were "Hand in Glove" and "This Charming Man." The latter was much more commercially successful, and both were radically better produced for The Smiths' self titled debut studio release. The musicianship on the original singles, complexity of the composition and arrangement, recording technique and production values all are indicative of a first release. "Hand in Glove" is a typical 4 chord rock song, replete with stereotypical 80s long fade in and fade out. There's very poor instrument separation, the vocals are way too far back in the mix, there's a lot of bleed and few tonal palates or timbres are distinct and articulate. It's almost impossible to make out the lyrics even on a good system. I don't have the original release for "This Charming Man" anymore, but I remember it being similar.
“The Smiths,” on the other hand, has a much more polished feel to it. John Porter convinced Marr and Morrissey to allow him to re-record and produce the debut album they had originally done with Troy Tate, and it shows: nearly modern level pres, a reasonable amount of compression, fairly plentiful use of drum machines and synthesizers, etc. The drums are very forward with accented transients and the acoustic guitar often sounds a little unnatural. On "Pretty Girls Make Graves," for example (which is a great song regardless), the rhythm guitar is relentlessly panned and phased throughout most of the track. I don't think the vocal work on this album really does justice to Morrissey's voice; his immaturity as a singer is evident in his enunciation, phrasing and interaction with the mic. There's often a lot of reverb or tape delay applied to his singing. On "What Difference Does it Make," for example, his voice feels distant and muddy on account of the heavy reverb. The track itself is indicative of what I feel are the evils of 80s era overproduction: the aggressive, forward transients of the drum machine, the heavy compression on the rock guitar chords and wide stereo panning to give it a greater sense of fill... This for me, oddly enough given that it is The Smiths' first album, does not have a classic "Smiths" feel at all to it. In a lot of ways it actually reminds me of Morrissey's "You Are the Quarry" for its 'shiny,' production. That said, compositionally, it is undeniably a Smiths album, if perhaps a bit more strident than sullen per se. Notable songs for me are "Pretty Girls Make Graves," "What Difference Does It Make" and "Suffer Little Children."
The singles that followed leading up to the release of “Meat is Murder” marked the beginning of Stephen Street's production for the Smiths, and consequently the beginning of the “signature” Smiths sound. As such, lest I let myself write an even more convoluted opus than the one I can already feel myself gearing up for, I'm going to focus just on the remaining three studio albums. Just make sure you don't miss "William, It Was Really Nothing," a non-album single that's definitely one of the best Smiths songs out there (and in my mind, the song that really first defined the archetype of the Smiths' sound).
“Meat is Murder” is one of the two classic Smiths albums (the other being the subsequent “The Queen Is Dead”), and as much as the hipster in me wants to be contrarian, these two albums are the reason why I love The Smiths. That said, this is definitely the more 80s of the two. There's still a reasonably heavy use of drum machines and synthesizers, and the same aggressive transient manipulation on snare and kick sounds that plagued many an iconic 80s album (*cough*...GRACELAND...*cough*). That aside, I don't mind the production approach to this album. Morrissey is clearly starting to embody his signature, mournful vocal style, the compression and vocoders are more subtly applied for the most part, and while the reverb is usually overdone, that's par for the course for the decade. What's important for me is that this is the first Smiths album that really speaks to me on a deeply emotional level, especially the title track (yes, Meat Is Murder. Delicious, delicious murder). It's fairly well EQed overall, though the electric guitars can feel a little brittle and bright occasionally. The panning and imaging work could be better (this is a common complaint of mine with Stephen Street's production: he tends to have consonant frequency bands occupy the same stereo space too much, and it can make some of the thicker arrangements feel a bit muddy). As both of the classic Smiths albums do, this one lacks the well-defined control of the likes of a Jeff Beck or Steely Dan album. That's part of the appeal oddly enough. Notable songs for me are "The Headmaster Ritual," "What She Said," "How Soon Is Now," "Well I Wonder," "Barbarism Begins At Home" and "Meat Is Murder."
“The Queen is Dead” is the best Smiths album. There is no argument here. Every Smiths song you know is on this album. Four of my five favorite Smiths songs are on this album, and seven of my ten (Frankly Mr Shankly is sort of the story of my life
“Strangeways, Here We Come,” the last Smiths album, is about as far a departure as you could imagine between a band's third and fourth albums. This is relatively slick, modern-sounding production. There's considerably more advanced compression going on here: decays and spectrum bleed are much tighter and controlled. Vocals are well recorded, drum sampling is much more natural sounding, while maintaining a lot of the aggressive punch of the previous three. Guitars especially are warmer and richer, much less brittle and more expansive. The bass is relatively far back in the mix, but it too is tightly controlled. And yet the production kind of kills the album for me. Much of the polish feels gimmicky, and gets in the way of the emotional immediacy of the composition. This album was created on the eve of the Smith's breakup as Morrissey and Marr's relationship was starting to hit its breaking point, and you can tell the soul really isn't there in quite the same way anymore. That said, "Death of a Disco Dancer," "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" and "Paint A Vulgar Picture" are beautiful songs, and "Girlfriend In A Coma" and "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" are both pretty iconic Smiths songs.
So, that's the Smiths in a nutshell. These are all my opinions (except where duly noted, and then it's just an infallible opinion
