The Miracle of the Smiths

Interesting: Janice Whaley covers the complete Smiths discography, 71 tracks, with only her voice (and ProTools) : http://janice.bandcamp.com/

These unreleased versions are not so mind-blowing imo. There's nothing here better than the released version, except probably 'This Night Has Opened My Eyes' which sounds nice and clean, and possibly 'Frankly Mr Shankly' whose trumpet line is very pleasing. 'Death of A Disco Dancer' might be quite engaging too but I need to give it a while to bed in. Otherwise Morrissey's an erratic enough vocalist that the alternate takes make for an interesting listen, but there isn't really much new here.

Mostly I was left marvelling at how surprisingly flabby their early stuff could be - 'The Hand That Rocks The Cradle' meanders forever, and 'Reel Around The Fountain' has no business being six minutes long. I'm sure they run through 'Rusholme Ruffians' twice.

The two new instrumentals are terrific though, great to hear the band heads-down and going at it. And 'Heavy Track' keeps up a proud tradition whereby every indie track that's ever been described as 'like Led Zeppelin' in no way sounds like Led Zeppelin.

I love the disgusted growl of JM's guitar on Paint a Vulgar Picture.

'Reel Around The Fountain' has no business being six minutes long

using the 'repeat' button on my old Technics CD player, I made this song 600 minutes long

That's more like it.

updated!

In re the recent bootleg -- the Smiths Recycle folks gave it the treatment, and got it in stereo:

http://thepowerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com/2011/01/mastered-smiths-stereo-demos-outtakes.html

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/

There's been a few updates of late.

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" posted last weekend.

Going back a bit, I think Rollins hated the Smiths b/c he didn't want to admit to himself that they really did ROCK pretty damn hard. ANy decent live recording of "Queen is Dead" will bear that out

god the title of this thread annoys the shit out of me

The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths
The Miracle of the Smiths

gaaaahhh must kill

and i like the smiths btw

The Miracle of the Smiths: The Indie Tribute Album to the Smiths - ft. Belle & Sebastian, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, Jens Lekman, the Magnetic Fields, Andrew Bird, of Montreal, Bon Iver & many more!

like, can't you just picture that shit??? (sorry lol)

Ease up on the caffeine.

More like The Miracle of Morrissey's Continued Popularity.

Ease up on the caffeine.

had a double iced coffee w/ extra espresso shot this morn :(

I'm quite grateful for this effort, as well as the Joy Division one, but honestly my ears can't hear any sonic improvement. The really rare live/alt versions are fun but not critical. Still, it's a good excuse to listen to it all again.

"William" up, look look it's the italian how soon!!

I do hear some improvements in the introductions. Once the full band gets going there isn't much difference though.

FYI:
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/content/141-Troy-Tate-sessions-straight-from-master-posted-on-smithstorrents.co.uk
http://www.smithstorrents.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=18955

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/

lots of new updates and such.

Did something get removed? Those last two posts are a month old.

they weren't published when i checked the site a week or two ago..

I think pisces was just bumping bcz it's been four months since anyone noted new posts. I have seen those posts before.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/smiths_1.jpg

Anybody going to fork out for the Rhino box set of remastered albums and singles?

http://pitchfork.com/news/43343-massive-smiths-box-set-on-the-way/

if they're the same remasters as the recycle ones then i'd consider it, otherwise no way

reissue repackage repackage...

hoping they please the press in Belgium too.

http://laughingsquid.com/lost-1992-press-video-for-the-smiths/

did they stop updating the blog in light of the official remasters coming out?

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/

Comments in the last post say no.

j marr on the radio just this very minute talking about the remasters. they've gone back to the master tapes and redone them (some needed baking but apparently they sound good). he also made it obvious he's not a fan of the loudness war and there won't be any of that.

sounds promising.

Let's just hope the rest of the key members involved aren't fans of the loudness war either. Sadly Morrissey will probably someone crank everything to the red just out of spite.

Morrissey is not involved in the remasters at all.

Didn't figure he would be, and thank god, was just being silly.

Is marr actually doing the remasters or just overseeing it? Because him actually doing them make me nervous

says that he "supervised" the remastering, so he's probably got a team of pros handling it.
Marr said of the reissues, which will be released on both CD and 12" vinyl, "I'm very happy that the remastered versions of The Smiths albums are finally coming out. I wanted to get them sounding right and remove any processing so that they now sound as they did when they were originally made. I'm pleased with the results."

My hearing just isn't good enough to benefit from the improved sound. And how silly is it that they're including "Louder Than Bombs" AND "World Won't Listen"?? So much overlap. Why not include a new disc of stuff that HASN'T been compiled?

Extra track and a tacky badge, indeed.

yeah that is odd. the smiths recycle thing has been fun for all the random edits/remixes/alternates. some of them are not the most amazing thing musically, but they're cool to hear.

only realised last night that these are already out (and reasonable at £30 for 8 cds). no pigs over battersea for the smiths reissues...

on Spotify too (all 106 tracks!).

Really? Where? I couldn't find it.

Assuming that was a put-on

Shakespears Sister posted to smithsrecycle

a put-on? heavens no! Smiths Complete box right here (only available in UK maybe?)
http://open.spotify.com/album/30g571JKoxs8AnsgAViV2J

interestingly that's the whole 106 track super collector box too, not just the 8 album CD set, because Jeane is on there. although Wonderful Woman isn't. hm. anyway it's gratis.

looks like it's UK only boooooo

first post: Never thought about Alan Bennett and Moz being kindred. (I mostly know A.B. from a handful of his films and TV plays.)

The Smiths box drops in mid-October in the states.

October 18th to be exact