Strangeways, Here We Come by The Smiths

Strangeways, Here We Come, the Smiths' fourth studio album and their last, came out in 1987 on Rough Trade a few months after the band had already fallen apart. As ever, Johnny Marr wrote the music and Morrissey wrote and sang the words, with Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums, and Stephen Street producing.

They went back into the Wool Hall studio in Bath early that year, down to four again after rhythm guitarist Craig Gannon's exit, to finish off what they owed Rough Trade. By most accounts the sessions were calm, but Marr walked out soon after they wrapped, and that was the end. The strange thing is how little of that tension leaks into the grooves. This is a band stretching out, with more instruments and odder textures than before: "A Rush And A Push and the Land is Ours" lurches on a wrong foot, "Girlfriend in a Coma" sets a grim title to a jaunty little tune, "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" jangles and bristles, and "Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me" is as forlorn as its name.

It climbed to number two in Britain, lingering on the chart for 17 weeks, reached 16 on the European chart and 55 in America, and went gold on both sides of the Atlantic. All four members have since called it the best thing they ever did, which makes it a fine way to go out and a cruel one.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.