Product Description

MEAT IS MURDER found the Smiths further honing their craft,tightening and brightening their sound. Unlikely heroes at home in the UK, and starting to break through the cracks in the States, they latched inextricably onto a generation of youth on a global scale with this album, making vegetarians and animal-rights activists out of more than a few of their overcoat-wearing devotees. The most straight-ahead of the Smiths' albums in terms of production, MEAT IS MURDER is a rootsy effort, driven largely by Johnny Marr's lush acoustic guitar arrangements.
The album, however, is far from folky. While the frenetic pace and dolorous lyric "Rusholm Ruffians" and the gentle, haunting "Well I Wonder" have acoustic backbones, the blistering fury of "What She Said" and the cascading echoes of "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" are purely electric, and are exactly the reason behind the reverence withwhich Marr found himself being graced from here on. Morrissey takes a humorous stab at royalty (not his last by any means) over the quick shuffle of "Nowhere Fast". The album closes on an intense, epic note with the dramatic, compelling title track, a graphic anthem for the cause celebre of vegetarianism.

Track Listing

1. Headmaster Ritual
2. Rusholme Ruffians
3. I Want The One I Can't Have
4. What She Said
5. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
6. How Soon Is Now
7. Nowhere Fast
8. Well I Wonder
9. Barbarism Begins At Home
10. Meat Is Murder

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1073 in Music
• Released on: 1993-11-15
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

As good as it gets!
In a (relatively) recent article, Uncut Magazine assessed the best albums that Johnny Marr has been involved in. It gave "The Queen is Dead" the award of "Critic's Choice", but it gave "Meat is Murder" the award of "Uncut Classic". There appears to be a growing recognition that this album stands out an absolute classic. The inclusion of "How Soon is Now?" on the WEA reissue certainly helps. I consider this to be one of the finest songs ever written.

It's a rather sad indictment of contemporary British music that the Smiths are somewhat "off-radar". A number of US artists have a more positive appreciation (The Shins and Of Montreal to mention a couple).

Anyway, this album is a must. Buy it now. Loads of great tracks - read the other reviews. Buy it now. Buy it now.

But Fishing is Justifiable Genocide
The Smiths releasing `Meat is Murder' was considered so significant that myself and a friend, Haggis, felt obliged to bunk off school to get hold of it the Monday morning it was released. We saw nothing strange as we pored over the `Meat is Murder' artwork in a KFC while we waited for a bus to takes us back to my house and more importantly my dansette.

With the benefit of hindsight I think The Smiths were a perfect singles band but that there albums were possibly of a lower standard. I think the single `That Joke isn't Funny Anymore' stands head and shoulders above the remainder of the album. That's not to say there aren't any great songs here `The Headmaster Ritual', `Rusholme Ruffians' and `I Want the One I Can't Have' are all fantastic however I think that the desire to shake up the arrangements whilst sticking to the four piece combo was taking its toll. I think this is most apparent on `Barbarism Begins at Home' with Marr's funk guitar playing not suiting Morrissey's vocal at all, the chain saw and cow mooing special effects on `Meat is Murder' also possibly labour the point.

This is not a poor record, merely a poor Smiths record, which still makes fantastic, like Lowry on acid.

WHAT THEY SAID: THE SMITHS GREATEST ALBUM.
A dalliance with personal opinion can often prove tedious to the onlooker, particularly if we are not familiar with the speakers' life. But,-even with the title track-, I think that everybody can relate to actual experiences similar to those on this album.

Classic art always remains such, as it motivates responses to our own actions-look at Shakespeare, or Mozart, or Michaelangelo, or the Beatles, as examples: their creative processes rely on human actions, deeds and responses to many of our experiences-through any age, regardless of the changing world.

This album is classic because we can all relate to it, thereby drawing us in and opening up those events which we may not care to relive, but that are still there nonetheless. Furthermore, great art is certainly not necessarily 'pretty'-more pretty ugly in many examples and many of the tracks on this album deal with ugly events.

How soon is now relies heavily on the broken dream of young love-whereby desperation gnaws at the mind, leaving the heart unfulfilled. We need not dwell too long on the theme, but it goes without really saying, that Marr's rift (scream) has to work in perfect harmony with Mozzers' voice for it to work: BUT, what makes it work perfectly is more important than this- WE HAVE ALL LIVED CERTAIN TIMES OF OUR LIVES IN THESE DESPERATE MOMENTS.

In the Headmaster ritual, I read a diary of my halcyon days at school: these memories of archaic teaching methods seem almost impossible to believe-but there's something romantic in the grey corridors of the old school. I may not have lived in Manchester, but I did exist in kind: we were the young troops sent out on a war of discovery, following sir and his military two-step. Those memories are as much a part of education as the curriculum. Nothings really changed, the experiences are just slightly different.

Ah- Rushholme ruffians: for me, one of the greatest tracks ever written. Can we admit to such bubble-gum life moments; true love entangled inexorably beneath the oily wheels of the crazy Wurlitzer-weren't those rockabilly operators and their slicked back hair looking for a better ride? I admired and envied them. Our fairground nestled itself in the post-war explosion of teenage love-bravado and innocence and rollies and classroom tatooes, which were etched for all time on the bare knuckles of never ending candy flossed love. I shall never forget those times-and this track keeps the moments even more alive.

But, there were, of course, many failed moments of desire-wanting the one I knew I could never have-consumed by self doubt and intolerable rejection: yes, jealousy came through the fairground gates with me, tapped me on the shoulder and screamed "you'll never get this one"! I was thus dejected by myself.

'What she said' is a cocophony of self doubt-this girl really needs to experience base love-after all, any love is better than none-isn't it? Another desperate existance, compromised by self loathing and another tatooed boy-this time fron Birkenhead. "AND I NEED TO CLING TO SOMETHING"! Does she ultimately fail-I don't think so; she'll have her lover and he'll have her, she can sense it in the smoke of her cigarettes.

Selfishness is critical to all of our lives (particlarly when we're younger), for it's a dog eat dog world, the survival of the fittest. It's a sick joke-one that's repeated so much, that it's no longer funny. Recognizing our own failings through other peoples' is the theme here. Actually, we learn much through misery.

Nonetheless, this truly is a beautiful album. Keats focused on negative capability: that no matter how negative lifes experiences are, positives can always be extracted and turned into something lovely. The examples here deal with horrible moments, for the most part, but there is much to savour in the long run. After all, thunder is frightening, but aren't we also in awe of it?