The Miracle of the Smiths

The This Mortal Coil box is amazing. Been delayed for more than a year because of Ivo's insane attention to detail, I was told. All the CDs are facsimilies of those Japanese CDs that are themselves facsimiles of the original album sleeves and inner sleeves, down to the stupidly heavy card. All have those Japanese language slips round each individual sleeve.

On listening to the Smiths reissues, I didn't in all honesty hear the evidence for the claims that some reviewers made about the difference from the original records.

Johnny Marr sings "What difference does it make" now.

they arrived. nicely packaged, tiny recreations of the sleeves (and stickers). (what looks like the back of the box on the amazon pictures is just stuck on with a couple of sticky labels but is easily removed.)

but they are louder and more trebly. i'm not sure i like that. (ok, have only listened to Hatful so far, and only then on the laptop)

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6048/6215245496_2a6d45c2d5.jpg

what does that picture tell you?

btw I didn't really know you liked the Smiths.

it tells me that they're louder but it doesn't look brickwalled at all really imo. rhino vinyl released tQiD a awhile back and it sounds sublime

well these sound amazing. warmer, more treble definitely; best remasters since The Beatles.

I'll be happily surprised if they come close to the recently released Pink Floyd remasters. I think those are on par with (or maybe even slightly better than) The Beatles reissues.

which ones EZ? the 'immersion' Dark Side tracks i've heard sound fantastic.

I bought the remasters of Dark Side, Animals and Meddle and they are all amazing. I've heard the same about the clarity and dynamism of The Wall and Wish You Were Here. I'd love to hear the Immersion set but I don't have that kind of cash.

Meanwhile:

http://smithsrecycle.blogspot.com/2011/09/etaatb-09-rtt181-shakespeares-sister.html

Oh, am I on the Pink Floyd thread?

No I Am Not.

I think I'm going to have to wait for Christmas for these, but I'm excited.

Mike Joyce playing 2 hours of Smiths songs:
http://www.eastvillageradio.com/content/content.php?id=2257

thanks for the link. listening now. his commentary is great.

It's here:

John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011

404 not found on that link, somehow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSLOnR1s74o

That has got to be the best advert I have ever seen!...will stay with me for a long time. Very well done J.L

PATROLMAN2056 1 hour ago 7 thumbs up

Holy crap! That melted my Grinchy heart!

I totally thought he was getting the Smiths box set.

Ha. Me too.

ugh

bad

would be so much better if it was the original. fuck you sensitive female slow cover version women.

but still, the enjoyment of angry indies being annoyed about this keeps on giving.

The horrible plinky cover version is the least of its crimes. I could even stand the shitty payoff, but the way it channels some kind of ghastly pastiche of every twee/innocent/nu-indie/mumblecore/shane meadows advert conceit into 90 creatively bereft seconds brakes my hart. Fuck's sake grossly overpaid ad agency, just *try* to do something original.

i'm seriously surprised there haven't been any adverts with slow females covering anything from 69 love songs yet

How long will it be before The Smiths become sufficiently retro and neutral that it would be OK for a firm like John Lewis to use the original in an ad? The people I know who do most of their Christmas shopping there (i.e. my mum and the like) still hate Morrissey: "Eh, I know you and you cannot sing" etc.

Still surprised that Morrissey/Marr agreed to this (and the This Charming Man intro earlier this year). Don't think they've ever explicitly said they wouldn't let their music be in ads, but I always thought that was implied. At the very least I would've expected Morrissey in his weird way to say no because JL sell leather coats/sofas and Waitrose sell meat.

Not understanding the hate here, maybe it's a UK thing where Morrissey's been overexposed. I quite liked that cover.

And, hey, Marr's gotta eat, given the blazing unsuccess of his solo album.

oh i think he's probably doing alright

how can you believe that, he's only been a full-time touring-and-recording member of three or four internationally successful bands since that solo album

Marr might not be the draw he was 20 years ago but I'm sure he's living comfortably enough. As for Mike Joyce...

Morrissey has apparently been bankrupt for the last four years so presumably needs the money. Also has to finance a daft libel action, atm, and they can get expensive.

Morrissey has apparently been bankrupt for the last four years

I think that's just in respect to his songwriting...

Didn’t cry at the advert.

The visuals are OK but the song doesn’t sit comfortably alongside them (since it’s not about Christmas or consumerism) and enough please-hit-me wispy cover versions please. Apparently John Lewis are planning a whole album of this muck for the season.

The ad would have been much better if Morrissey and Marr had turned up at the end as Santa and his helper. You decide who would play whom.

singing "You just haven't earned it yet, Baby!"

"How Soon Is Noël"

"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"

... we've all experienced that at Xmas dinner, eh?

"Still Ill"

... Boxingdayamirite?

"Pretty Girls Make Gravies"

"How Soon is Now" was used on a jeans advert YEARS ago, iirc

Yeah, and come-on you remember "This Charming Man" soundtracking some indie lad making a mixtape, for some product I forget.

Was that not John Lewis as well?

prob.

yes, this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EosFNm78hGg

xxxxpost "Paint a Vulgar Picture" (You could've said no if you'd wanted to...)

shoplifters of the world unite.

"Hang the tinsel, hang the tinsel/Hang the tinsel, hang the tinsel/Hang the tinsel hang the tinsel hang the tinsel" etc.

"There have been better bands than the Smiths"

outrageous.

OUTRAGEOUS

" There have been better bands than the Smiths, but there has never been a more perfect band, in the sense of having a distinct, deliberate, powerful aesthetic shaped by the tensions of collaboration, combined with the ability to articulate that aesthetic."

Context, dude!

hm. can't get past outrageousness of the first part.