Description:
It's a shame that the people responsible for The Very Best of The Smiths were neither shameless nor honest enough to include "Paint a Vulgar Picture" on this compilation. Morrissey's awesomely prescient analysis of record company rapacity ("Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs/ Double-pack with a photograph/Extra track and a tacky badge") would have been a suitable introduction: The Smiths are already one of the most collected, compiled and anthologised bands in rock history (we've been here already with Best. . . 1, Best. . . 2, The World Won't Listen, Louder Than Bombs and Singles, and there's noth
It's a shame that the people responsible for The Very Best of The Smiths were neither shameless nor honest enough to include "Paint a Vulgar Picture" on this compilation. Morrissey's awesomely prescient analysis of record company rapacity ("Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs/ Double-pack with a photograph/Extra track and a tacky badge") would have been a suitable introduction: The Smiths are already one of the most collected, compiled and anthologised bands in rock history (we've been here already with Best. . . 1, Best. . . 2, The World Won't Listen, Louder Than Bombs and Singles, and there's nothing new on The Very Best Of bar a claim that it is "Digitally Remastered", as if anyone can tell). However, it could reasonably be argued that The Very Best Of is not entirely redundant: it appears at a time when the British indie tradition that The Smiths raised to heights still unequalled is now in the hands of people who never knew these songs, who were still in short pants when The Smiths split in 1988. It might be hoped, therefore, that this collection will serve two purposes: one, to inspire today's crop in pursuit of the heights scaled here; two, to remind an increasingly unfussy audience of just how dull, timid and witless the likes of Travis, Coldplay and Stereophonics sound alongside "This Charming Man", "The Boy With The Thorn in His Side" and "How Soon Is Now?". --Andrew Mueller
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Manufacturer: Warner
Release date: 4 June 2001
Number of discs: 1
EAN: 0685738894826 UPC: 766487299527
Tags: Indie (2), Best Of (2), Album (2), Rock (1), Indie Rock (1), English (1), Emo (1), Alternative (1), Collection (1), Alternative Rock (1), New Wave (1), Mel (1)
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