The Smiths Meat Is Murder Album Review
Meat is Murder
The Smiths
11 February 1985
Rough Trade Records
Pitchfork’s review: 8.1/10
Personal Review: 8.9/10
In 1982, a Manchester band revived the independent music scene while becoming one of the most important acts of the past 30 years. The Smiths released their self titled debut album in 1984 on Rough Trade Records with an estimated budget of 6000 pounds. Much to their surprise, the songs on The Smiths got them a spot on Top of the Pops next to U2 and Depeche Mode. In contrast to their contemporaries, The Smiths gained a devoted cult following by addressing social and personal problems In their music. Major targets of Steven Morrissey’s lyrics include the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, british royalty and social loneliness.
While still drawing from the Jangle Pop sound of their previous work, composer and guitarist Johnny Marr manages to bring funk and 1950’s rock and roll influences into the nine tracks on this album. Lyrically, Morrissey takes a more direct approach at criticising targets by prodding at the Manchester education system on The Headmaster Ritual and carnivorism on Meat Is Murder with the all wit and intellect Smith fans have come to enjoy. In an interview with The BBC, Morrissey states his reason for these statements by saying, “we feel that, um, popular music should be used in order to make serious statements.”
Since the release of Meat is Murder, few bands have managed to attract such a following by making anti-establishment statements.
To start off the album, The Headmaster Ritual Tells a story of the strict Manchester school that Morrissey went to while growing up. His hatred toward the school could be summed up in the first five words of the song, “Belligerent ghouls run Manchester schools.”
What makes this song different than the other ones on the album is the alternate tuning on the guitars. While a normal guitar is tuned to fourths, Marr and bassist Andy Rourke tuned their instruments to open D, doing so allowed the band to explore new sounds that would have been difficult to do with a standard tuning. In more recent times, Radiohead covered this song during a webcast in 2007.
At the epicenter of the new influences on this album there is Nowhere Fast. Nowhere Fast starts off with a 50’s rock and roll sounding guitar riff before being guided through the song by Morrissey’s satirical, yet sincere, lyrics.
“I’d like to drop my trousers to the queen / every sensible child will know what I mean,” sings Morrissey, “and when I’m lying in bed / I think about life and I think about death / and neither one particularly appeals to me.”
While the topic of these lyrics is quite serious, Marr adds a juxtaposing feel to the whole song by playing a Nile Rodgers style funk guitar riff over the whole song.
Being the longest track on the album, Barbarism Begins at Home brings together an extraordinary arrangement of instruments to produce a disco flavored song that gets better after every listen. Despite the song title, the lyrics hint at the Manchester schooling system with the lyrics, “unruly boys / who will not grow up / must be taken in hand / unruly girls / who will not settle down / they must be taken in hand, “ and “A crack on the head / Is what you get for not asking / And a crack on the head / Is what you get for asking”
In the short five year career of The Smiths there has only been a few instances for drummer Mike Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke to express their talent; however, Rourke gets the spotlight on this song with his funky bass solo that ends the songs.
Since The Smiths unfortunate parting in 1987, they have managed to influence artists from Oasis to Radiohead. In an interview with The BBC, Noel Gallagher of Oasis points out how,
“I’ve seen him [Johnny Marr] in the studio do things that are so simple on a guitar yet so difficult at the same time.”
Furthermore, Guitarist Ed O'brien from Radiohead states how he much adored The Smiths in the following quote: “I only went to Manchester really because of the music scene and really because of the Smiths. And when I got there, within a month I got seven Smiths shows.”
The Smiths music and the powerful messages found in Meat is Murder will continue to influence and change the way people think for years to come.
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