““Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package! Re-evaluate the songs” as Morrissey sings on Paint A Vulgar Picture on this album. It wasn’t something he was advocating at the time, but it’s certainly become the main activity of The Smiths (record company) since. . This slice of vinyl is a 2016 reissue and, quite randomly, a birthday present from my brother that year. Though it was The Smiths’ last studio LP it was actually the first of theirs I ever owned, in cassette form, bought to restore my sanity in a Menzies shop in Ayr when I was working in the nearby Butlins in the summer of 1993. . I think it’s a great album, but it’s not as though they released any duds. As well as the hit singles Girlfriend In A Coma, Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before and I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish, it also contains arguably their best song, and my personal favourite Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me. . This is The Smiths’ last recorded studio work together, and whereas the album doesn’t quite have the iconic status of The Queen Is Dead, its far more than the sum of its (7 inch) parts, showing considerable creative musical development, even if the lyrics are in a similar Morrissean vein. Along with Last Night, Death of a Disco Dancer was the one that spoke to me most in that strange summer I spent in the Scottish holiday camp, full of Glaswegian drug pushers and college drop-outs – and that was just the staff...” . FOR FULL REVIEW & PLAYLIST CLICK LINK IN PROFILE: . #thesmiths @thesmithsofficial #strangewaysherewecome #girlfriendinacoma #deathofadiscodancer #lastnightidreamtthatsomebodylovedme #morrissey #johnnymarr #vinyl #recordcollection #nowplaying #nowlistening #randomrecordreview https://www.instagram.com/p/B50h2POJFhQ/?igshid=1mbofcv6mcl4s
