Smiths, Meat Is Murder

Meat Is Murder is my favourite Smiths album! While most people cite The Queen Is Dead, for some reason the slightly lo-fi production on this record always charms me. Not only that, but this record contains what is possibly the best bass melody ever written and one of the few songs where the bass takes the front seat without being ridiculously annoying in the form of "Barbarism Begins At Home."

The whole album is a playful yet emotional romp through Morrissey's 1980's Manchester landscape starting with "The Headmaster Ritual" about the horrors of his school days, finding first love on a fairground in "Rusholme Ruffians," laments on unrequited love in "I Want The One I Can't Have" and animal cruelty in "Meat Is Murder." It's a cacaphony of Johnny Marr's light-hearted rockabilly guitar melodies and Moz's trademark humour, sarcasm and wry observations about self-doubt.

Really any Smiths album is a great album to own, but this is the one I always come back to first.