'The Headmaster Ritual' opens Meat Is Murder with a sharp, restless guitar figure from Johnny Marr and an attack by Morrissey on the British school culture he grew up in. The second studio album by The Smiths is also their most openly political: rockabilly on 'Rusholme Ruffians', funk on 'Barbarism Begins at Home', and a title track in which Morrissey turns his vegetarianism into a manifesto. 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' shows the other side, slow and melodramatic. The original album came out in February 1985 on Rough Trade and became the only album the band took to number one on the UK chart during its lifetime. This edition is a CD.