Eureka! A best-of, that makes sense ... and what a sound!

Let's make it short: THE SOUND OF THE SMITHS after two unsuccessful "best of" compilations (1992 and 2001) is the best compilation of the legendary British indie band to Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Not only do they offer in the simple embodiment quantitatively equal to something like "The Very Best Of" (2001) and is unbeatable in the Deluxe version with 46 tracks. Apart from the amount of music collected here feature the kind of selection and sound quality. CD 1 offers a virtually flawless overview of the main published 1983-1987 songs - all 18 singles, plus some essential album tracks like "Still Ill" or "The Headmaster Ritual". CD 2 deepens the work retrospective and provides, among other high-quality songs (three tracks from the best album The Queen Is Dead and former single B-sides like "Girl Afraid", "Please Please Please ..." or "Half A Person") for the first time prepared on a Smiths-Compi rarities. Among them is the curious, posthumously published as a single "Sweet And Tender Hooligan", the important early works "Jeane" and "Wonderful Woman", the live version of "Handsome Devil" and a thrilling live recording of "Meat Is Murder", the album version of the surpasses in intensity.

But not just for beginners is worth the sampler. The title of the compilation is no coincidence: The largest innovative performance compiling concerns just the sound. As a fan of the band - I have all the albums - I myself am convinced and I are jointly responsible full of praise for the excellent remastering, for Johnny Marr and Frank Arkwright. The quality difference to the '93er CD reissues of LPs is hard to miss: Marr and Arkwright have the sound dusted vigorously, increases the volume, enhances the bass, thus achieving a cleaner, richer and fuller sound.

A few minor downer offers THE SOUND OF THE SMITHS yet. "I Keep Mine Hidden" - the ultimate composition of the songwriting team Morrissey & Marr "and performed live James Cover" What's The World I Know It's Over ". Are interesting but dispensable for newcomers to the rarities collection exploits as were" "" Reel Around The Fountain "and" Rubber Ring "." "sacrificed you are not represented as well as the beautiful Marr arpeggio of" Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others London "(as amended by the live album Rank) probably Morrissey pushed through ; he loves the relative relatively simple song (well, Anthrax have been covered him ...) The song compilation - for Morrissey and Marr are responsible - on CD 2 acts as a compromise between two different commercial considerations: on the one hand to last until now only. out of print singles or available on bootlegs rarities come on board; on the other hand to offer potential new entrants not deter bottom line CD2 but tend to be more responsive to the fan and collector than for the random prospects..

Regarding the presentation: The booklet is fairly sparse: Here more could be in there. Otherwise, however, there's hardly anything to complain about - a very successful round best-of. And if you consider that the vast majority of only about 70 songs of Smiths are hit, the device itself, the acquisition of two-time execution for beginners to serious consideration.