The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths

The Queen Is Dead, the Smiths' third album, came out on Rough Trade on 16 June 1986, and it's the sound of the band at full stretch. After Meat Is Murder they fled the pressures of London and their own label for Greater Manchester, where Johnny Marr and Morrissey wrote furiously at Marr's house in Bowdon. The two of them produced it, with Stephen Street engineering, in sessions running from July to December 1985 at RAK Studios in London, Jacobs Studios in Farnham and Drone Studios in Manchester.

Marr is the engine here. The title track roars in on a clattering, feedback-flecked drive, "Bigmouth Strikes Again" gallops like a runaway horse, and "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" shimmers and sways. Morrissey rides on top of it all, sharp-tongued one minute and aching the next: "Frankly Mr. Shankly" bounces along like a music-hall number, "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" floats in a dreamy haze, and "I Know It's Over" is a long, slow slide into the dark. Then comes "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", as lush and hopeless as anything they ever cut. The mix of indie rock and post-punk never sounded so grand.

It spent 22 weeks on the UK albums chart and got as high as number two, while in the US it climbed to number 70 and eventually went gold in 1990. Critics fell over themselves praising Marr's guitars and Morrissey's wit, and it has turned up again and again on lists of the greatest albums ever made.

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