The World Won't Listen

by

The Smiths

Edit

It's true that The Smiths' work has gotten the "reissue, repackage, repackage... extra track and a tacky badge" treatment in recent years. However that isn't really a valid criticism of this particular compilation. A reviewer below, with whom many of you seem to agree, actually makes a horribly illogical argument. He contends that you are better of buying the "actual albums" citing that most of these tracks can be had on "Louder Than Bombs". Well my friend, "Louder Than Bombs" was a compilation of early singles just like this one. LTB and TWWL were essentially the same exact album released for the same exact purpose. In fact, LTB is just TWWL released in the US as opposed to the UK intended to be basically a simultaneous release on opposite sides of the Pond. In reality "World..." slightly predates "Louder..." by several months; TWWL was released in the UK in February of 1987 while LTB was released in the US in May of the same year. So "Louder..." was NOT an "actual" album and it didn't come first.

Another reviewer says he hates the redundancy of Smiths' releases. I do too, but that is also germane only to later comps and not to this release. As noted before this and LTB are really just the same album intended for different populations... no one ever expected you to buy both. People in America were supposed to buy LTB while fans in the UK were supposed to buy TWWL... period. Having only the studio albums would cheat you out of many, many of the band's best songs. The simple truth is that every fan needs EITHER LTB or TWWL but not both. As for the posthumously released hits collections, I think they are redundant and I don't own them. The only argument that one can really make is that this is somewhat redundant with "Hatful of Hollow". However "Hatful" was never meant to be a proper release of the singles, rather it was released (very early in their career in 1984 I might add) to answer demand from fans for recordings of the band's Radio One John Peel Sessions; they added in a number of b-sides that many fans did not have to add value... so this was actually an attempt to help the fan out not to milk the redundancy cow. The versions at times are considerably different than the official versions and there are a couple of tracks hard to find elsewhere.

OK enough griping but I really hate inaccuracy and false arguments if you can't tell.

Having said the above, I personally slightly prefer "Louder Than Bombs" to "The World Won't Listen" simply because it is domestic and therefore cheaper, otherwise they are essentially the same. The only thing offered here that is truly rare is the instrumental "Money Changes Everything", later used as the music for Bryan ferry's hit "The Right Stuff" from 'Bete Noire'... a great song that Marr actually played on. Obviously the music is great as you already know.

Most of these songs are available elsewhere:

1. Panic.......Louder Than Bombs

2. Ask.......Louder Than Bombs

3. London.......Louder Than Bombs

4. Bigmouth Strikes Again.......The Queen Is Dead

5. Shakespeare's Sister.......Louder Than Bombs

6. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.......The Queen Is Dead

7. Shoplifters of the World Unite.......Louder Than Bombs

8. Boy With the Thorn in His Side.......The Queen Is Dead

9. Money Changes Everything

10. Asleep

11. Unloveable.......Louder Than Bombs

12. Half a Person.......Louder Than Bombs

13. Stretch Out and Wait.......Louder Than Bombs

14. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore.......Meat Is Murder

15. Oscillate Wildly.......Louder Than Bombs

16. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby.......Louder Than Bombs

17. Rubber Ring.......Louder Than Bombs

18. Golden Lights.......Louder Than Bombs