"A classic album that showed the music world what a potent force The Smiths really were. Marr's music is nothing less than sublime; Morrissey puts aside ambiguity to make himself clear to all after too many mis-readings of previous lyrics. Morrissey revealed himself as archly political in accompanying interviews, ranting iratedly on his topics of the moment, such as school violence, and vegetarianism, dealt with by the classic bass-led anthem "Meat Is Murder".
Signs of later theatrics creep into this album with the moos, and the rain-cum-frying-fat present on "Well I Wonder". Original versions of the album did not include "How Soon Is Now?". Released in February 1985, it deservedly topped the UK album charts, and was the first Smiths album to do so."
analysis by John Levon, moz@compsoc.man.ac.uk , and republished with kind permission.