Show Post: In House #1544


It's a very busy show today as we get to the latest installment of our regular feature, Land Sound Records, as well as to several new things out this week.

Land Sound Record #3: The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead

Release Date: June, 1986
Label: Rough Trade/ Sire

The apex of the Smiths' rather short-lived output, both chronologically and creatively, The Queen Is Dead is almost unquestionably the album from perhaps the most important British rock band of the 1980's. The third full-length from the band saw a creative expansion that was not necessarily anticipated. Morrissey was sharp at the pen for this one, as the lyricist who had established himself largely as a solopsist became a biting cultural critic of British society, while still making universal subjects of lovelorn material, as on the romantic, macabre "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out." Johnny Marr's swirling guitars, of course, laid the backdrop for Morrissey's words, dooming scores of amateur guitarists to attempt (unsuccessfully) to recreate the sounds found in songs like "Cemetry Gates." At once a darkly passionate, comically absurd and playful album, The Queen Is Dead has aged far better than most of its contemporaries. Indeed, twenty years on, it's a light that never goes out.

(MP3)"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"
(MP3)"Bigmouth Strikes Again"



In House #1544.
Airdate: 1/27/06
Focus: Land Sound Record #3 featuring the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead, plus a new live album from the Go-Betweens, That Striped Sunlight Sound, and new music from Kelley Stoltz, Arctic Monkeys and more.




PLAYLIST