I was wondering when these Brit critics would get around to this band, one of the UK's favorites back in the 80s. While a few of you might claim this was a biased choice, in my mind it was a good choice regardless. And the selection is The Smiths - The Smiths (1984)

Yearning, melodic, jangly, and very northern, The Smith's first album was quite unlike anything that had gone before. It helped that Morrissey was a one-off and that Johnny Marr had taken all the best riffs from Sixties pop, punk, and disco and melded them into his own unique style. But there was something magical about their sound that endless successors have tried to replicate. Without this...there'd be no Belle and Sebastian, no Suede, no Oasis, and no Libertines - at the very least.

I was a pretty big fan of this band, and an even bigger fan of Johnny Marr (did you know he changed his last name from Maher to Marr since Johnny Maher was the name of the drummer from the Buzzcocks?). Anyway, they were a huge influence on many other bands of prominence than those they mentioned, especially the Stone Roses and Radiohead.

Swish