The Smith’s “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)” is magnificent and I highly recommend it!
Purchase “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)” from Amazon
BAND: The Smiths
ALBUM: The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)
ORIGINAL ALBUM RELEASE DATE: June 16, 1986
DELUXE RELEASE DATE: July 17, 2017
Disc One: (2017 Remastered)
1. “The Queen Is Dead”
2. “Frankly, Mr. Shankly”
3. “I Know It’s Over”
4. “Never Had No One Ever”
5. “Cemetry Gates”
6. “Bigmouth Strikes Again”
7. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”
8. “Vicar In A Tutu”
9. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
10. “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”
Disc Two: (Demo & B-Sides)
1. “The Queen Is Dead” (Full Version)
2. “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” (Demo)
3. “I Know It’s Over” (Demo)
4. “Never Had No One Ever” (Demo)
5. “Cemetry Gates” (Demo)
6. “Bigmouth Strikes Again” (Demo)
7. “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” (Demo)
8. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” (Demo Mix)
9. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” (Take 1)
10. “Rubber Ring” (B-side)
11. “Asleep” (B-side)
12. “Money Changes Everything” (B-side)
13. “Unloveable” (B-side)
Disc Three: Live In Boston
1. “How Soon Is Now?”
2. “Hand In Glove”
3. “I Want The One I Can’t Have”
4. “Never Had No One Ever”
5. “Stretch Out And Wait”
6. “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”
7. “Cemetry Gates”
8. “Rubber Ring/What She Said/Rubber Ring”
9. “Is It Really So Strange?”
10. “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
11. “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”
12. “The Queen Is Dead”
13. “I Know It’s Over”
If there are three bands/groups that I will continue rebuying, they are The Smiths, The Cure and Depeche Mode.
These three fueled my life through high school and my college years.
And once again, I have made a repurchase of an album that I have owned numerous times, The Smith’s 1986 album “The Queen is Dead”. This time, the 2017 release of “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)”.
The band from Manchester, England which consisted of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. And together they released a total of four studio albums and one live album. Each were re-released in 2011 via the critically praised box set, “Complete” with new remastering.
And so, let’s assume, you spend good money for “Complete” with the 2011 remastering which was awesome. And let’s assume that The Smiths albums are to be re-released. Would one want to re-purchase it again? Would they need to?
Well, I hope this review will make the decision much easier.
When it comes to remasters and releases, you get some good, some bad but for me, when it comes to “Deluxe” or “Super Deluxe”, it’s about good sound, price and good extra content. And as a music reviewer for decades, I have accumulated so much in my life, that I literally have a mountain of music, that unlike others who are true fans who want the physical releases, I review this as a person who strictly went for the digital music reviews that I have paid for and were not sent to me by the record label.
So, let’s begin with some context of “The Queen is Dead” and me, being a fan of The Smiths. The album did well when it was released in June 1986 and it spent 22 weeks in the UK Albums Charts at #2 and #70 in the US Billboard 200.
The album was also ranked as publication “NME” as No. 1 of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
Because I was more into new wave and alternative music, the charts that I truly cared about in the US was KROQ 106.7 (a new wave/alternative rock station that was legendary during the ’80s and ’90s) Top Songs of that year.
In 1986, it would be a surprise that the top ranking song of that year from The Smiths that year on KROQ 106.7 was the B-side of their single “Panic” titled “Ask” which was the 5 song of 1986, while “Panic” was #17, while “Bigmouth Strikes Again” was #37 and “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” at #99.
While many of The Smiths songs ere not included on studio albums, but compilations, as those two songs would be found the in the 1987 compilation album “The World Won’t Listen”,
The four singles from The Smiths that were featured on “The Queen is Dead” was their Sept. 1985 track “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”, their May 1986 song “Bigmouth Strikes Again” and their June 1986 song “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”. The fourth single “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” was released five years after the group had disbanded in October 1992.
For “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”, considered as Morrisey’s favorite song from The Smiths, it’s important to know that the single version of this song is a little different in the fact that the album version features synthesized strings, which the single version doesn’t have much of. The single version is featured on the 1987 compilation album of “The World Won’t Listen”. But I think for most people these days, the version they more than likely have listened to in recent times is the album version.
The song was released with “Asleep” in the 7″ and “Rubber Ring/Asleep” in the 12″ (and both as individual tracks for the CD single release). With the release of “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)”, this deluxe edition now features both b-sides.
For “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, this was Morrisey’s self-deprecating song which reflected his frustration towards the music industry, and a guitar riff that was inspired by The Rolling Stones inspiring Marr. Back in the mid-80s, Rough Trade head actually wanted “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” to be the debut single, but Marr insisted with “Bigmouth Strikes Again”. The song was released as a single with “Money Changes Everything” (which is now included on the deluxe edition) and “Unloveable” on the 12″ version (the song is included in the deluxe edition).
The third single “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”, a song best known for its reverb on percussion and then fading the track in and out in the intro. A song that scared me as a lad, because I thought my tape player was malfunctioning. But a song featuring one of Marr’s greatest work! The song was released on 7″ with “The Draize Train” and on 12″ with “Frankly, Mr. Shankly” and “The Draize Train”. Surprisingly, “The Draize Train” is not included on this Deluxe Edition.
Surprisingly, one of my favorite The Smiths songs of all time, “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”, was not even released as a single until 1992 (five years after the band disbanded), when it was used to promote the band’s compilation album “Best II”. Interesting enough, it reached No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart, the band’s last UK top 40 appearance.
As mentioned the song was pushed by Rough Trade Records as the debut single for “The Queen is Dead” but “Bigmouth Strikes Again” was chosen and also, Marr had said, they always worked on the premise that there is a song on each album that people felt, “that song should have been a single” even though that never happened (well, when the band was around). In hindsight, Marr had said that the song could have been released as a fourth single, during that time period, but they had already written “Panic” which they wanted to release.
Now what I love about the “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)” is that you get the demo versions of most of all the songs featured on the album, including the first take of “There is a Light That Never Goes Out”. You get the B-sides which is also a great addition for the second disc. Most of the songs were previously unreleased, so this is another reason for fans to be excited about this Deluxe Edition.
And while “Rank” is the only live album of the Smiths (the album was recorded on October 1986 at National Ballroom in Killburn, London), “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)” is rather fascinating because you get a live album (record live in Boston) for disc 3.
Also fascinating, for “Rank”, they omitted the songs “I Want the One I Can’t Have” and “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” along with two other songs from that live album, but the live performances for those two songs are included in the deluxe edition. You get 13 classic live tracks which was unexpected.
I say unexpected, because the album was released on vinyl to celebrate the album’s 30th anniversary and the vinyl version came with other tracks such as “Oscillate Wildly” (which was included in the Japan 12″ release of “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side”) and “The Draize Train” (which was a B-side for “Some Girls are Bigger Than Others”) which were not included on this digital release. So, that makes me wonder why these two were included in the vinyl but removed for the CD/Digital release?
But not to worry because you can get B-tracks with “The Sound of the Smiths (Deluxe Edition)” released in 2008 or “Complete” released in 2011.
Now my honest feelings is this album is definitely worth it for all the new content. But by saying this, there may be hesitation for those who have considered pressing the trigger on the awesome “Complete” album.
My feeling is that until 2008, The Smiths was one of the group that has not received any remastering. And in 2008, “The Sound of the Smiths (Deluxe Edition)” was considered as awesome with Johnny Marr involved with the album’s mastering.
But with the release of “Complete” in 2011, this was remastered by master-engineer Frank Arkwright with assistance by Johnny Marr at the Metropolis Studios in London. Each album was taken back to the original tape sources.
But remastering from 2003-2011 in some ways, for some, when they see may see remastering, especially if its “older”, there is a feeling that it’s not good. That is not always the case. Some older remastering of albums are very well done.
But since 2015, we are seeing Super Deluxe and Deluxe releases receiving special care with remastering utilizing newer music tools and technology but there are notable names who worked on the remastering and those who worked on the The Beatles, Peter Gabriel, Fleetwood Mac and the more recent Prince releases have done a phenomenal job.
Unfortunately, “better” is not always true, as a fewer post-2015 remastering releases have been disappointing due to compression. So, it’s good to check out reviews if you are an audiophile.
“Complete” was definitive and I emphasize “was” because if “The Queen is Dead” has received newer remastering and also additional content, that tells me that more deluxe editions may come out for the other Smith studio albums.
Granted, that has been my thought, but five years since the release of “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)”, many wonder if we will see the other albums from The Smiths receiving Deluxe Edition treatment with newer remastering.
If it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, I’m quite content with “Complete” and of course, this album, “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)”.
Again, The Smiths are on my list of albums I just keep repurchasing, as long as the additional content makes it worth a must buy and the remastering is much more immersive or better than previous remasterings. I absolutely love this group’s music.
In the case of “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)”, you are getting the best version of this album to date and a newer remastering compared to the 2011 remastering of the “Complete” box set release. Digitally, you are getting 36 tracks for under $19 which is great!
Again, there hasn’t been any new announcements of releases for Deluxe Editions of other albums from The Smiths since 2017. But it’s bound to happen, the question is “When?”.
The Smith’s “The Queen is Dead (Deluxe Edition)” is magnificent and I highly recommend it!
