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"Sixteen, clumsy and shy/that's the story of my life."
"Half a Person" is not only the best song on this odds/sods U.S. singles collection (which, aside from "The Queen is Dead," remains their most stunning achievement; the Smiths were very much a singles band throughout their entire history, releasing 24 in total, many iconic and better known than the album tracks), it's the best thing they ever recorded -- one of Johnny's all-time great chord sequences.
The title is borrowed from a line in Elizabeth Smart's extended prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.
And the cover star is Salford, Manchester playwright Shelaugh Delaney. I've been to Salford (see photo), it's rough but ready -- the famous men's club is basically on the same lane (Coronation Street) as the long-running Brit soap opera.
Mar 30, 2025
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The very essence of âbeautiful melodies saying/singing terrible (but occasionally funny) things.â Johnny Marrâs guitar playing takes a huge leap forward and is given center stage here.
Among Morrisseyâs lyrical targets: the Thatcher administration, the monarchy, UK public schools, his musical contemporaries and of course the meat industrial complex.
âTimeâs tide will smother you.â
Feb 11, 2025
the sundays are definitely sonically influenced by the smiths. iâd say this album might be the one that maps unto reading, writing and arithmetic the closest, the guitar at the start of cemetery gates is really similar to hereâs where the story ends. both bands also have the same level of whimsical songwriting and general jaunty-ness but the sundays are bit more dream pop imo.
Oct 16, 2024
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đđđ Love the lyrics.
itâs F*ck morissey tho but I wanna find more songs with this vibe
Feb 13, 2025
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Hey tyler hopefully this doesnât violate some PI.FYI golden rule
But after nearly two years of writing, editing and arguing, my book about the EP is coming out in May and can be preordered here:
https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/
The book is about the origins, history and cultural impact of the EP since these little objects first started coming out in the 50s.
Over 50 of my music biz friends then helped me shape the list and review the top 200 ever released, according to us (ha).
For those of you who are into this kind of geekery/snobbery, I canât wait to hear what you think. A labor of love, as all books are! â¤ď¸
Mar 27, 2024
âSongs Of a Lost Worldâ coming to a goth listening station near you Nov 1 đ¤
The fr FW Me Friday the 13th the world was looking for
Sep 14, 2024
I will fail to explain just how much this band meant to me in the 90s.
So I will borrow from AV Club who did a fine job of distilling it:
âUnwound is the best band of the â90s. Not just because of how prolific, consistent, and uncompromising it was, but because of how perfectly Unwound nested in a unique space between some of the most vital forms of music that decade: punk, post-rock, indie rock, post-hardcore, slow-core, and experimental noise. That jumble of subgenres doesnât say much; in fact, it falls far short of what Unwound truly synthesized and stood for. Unwound stood for Unwound. But in a decade where most bands were either stridently earnest or stridently ironic, Unwound wasnât stridently anything. It was only itself. In one sense Unwound was the quietest band of the â90s, skulking around like a nerdy terror cell. In another sense it was the loudest, sculpting raw noise into contorted visions of inner turmoil and frustration.â
R.I.P. Vern Rumsey.
This is their finest song, from their finest album.
I really canât say enough about the sheer bloody minded genius of this group. đ¤
Mar 23, 2024