The Smiths

The Smiths formed in Manchester in 1982 around singer and lyricist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, with Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums. In five years the band made four studio albums for Rough Trade, from the debut The Smiths (1984) through Meat Is Murder and The Queen Is Dead to Strangeways, Here We Come (1987). The sound rests on Marr's chiming, fast moving guitar parts and Morrissey's singing about loneliness, longing and 1980s England, shot through with humour and irony. Because the band released so much material only on singles and B-sides, compilations such as Hatful of Hollow, The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs belong to the work just as much. After the split in 1987 Morrissey went solo and Marr worked with The The, Electronic and Modest Mouse among others; bassist Andy Rourke died in 2023.

This collection brings together The Smiths on vinyl, LP and CD: the four studio albums, the live album Rank and the compilations from the 1980s and 1990s.