The Smiths Critical Discography

One thing I've found amusing is the manner in which overviews of Morrissey's career regard his Smiths era as the one time when he could do no wrong in the eyes of critics. Those of us who were there, however, remember all too well that there were just as many critics panning The Smiths as there were praising them. The Morrissey bashing phenomenon which is currently epidemic among reviewers is nothing new. However, there were critics who realized what a precious commodity The Smiths were and gave them their just due. This archive attempts to give an unbiased historic overview of the Smiths' recorded output by reprinting various reviews spanning the band's lifespan. Hopefully, you will find this archive both entertaining and illuminating.

Special thanks to the webmasters of It May All End Tomorrow and the missing in action Hand In Glove for the wonderful lyric base and cover gallery, respectively.

Please note that a number of reviews that are reprinted here were gleaned from old Smiths scrapbooks which neglected to retain information such as the name of the reviewer, the name of the magazine it was published in, or the date of issue. In these cases, I have credited the excerpts to an "unknown critic". If anyone has any further information they can share with me, I would greatly appreciate it.