From the Vaults Friday The Smiths The Smiths 1984

The Year: 1984
The Album: The Smiths, The Smiths
Who it Influenced: Anyone whose guitar ever jangled

Despite what all those five-star, greatest-English-albums-ever type plaudits for The Queen Is Dead are telling you, The Smiths never really released a definitive album; being a band who did their best work on singles. In fact, their singles compiles —1984's Hatful of Hollow and 1987's The World Won't Listen— do a far-better job of capturing the band at their best, capturing why The Smiths were so meaningful to so many.

But their self-titled 1984 debut captures a band at their brilliant beginnings; bursting with energy, vitality, anger, anxieties; barreling along through a host of killer tunes penned by the incomparable Morrissey/Marr songwriting partnership.

Whilst its Morrissey —his tortured croon, his elusive sexuality, his fervent politics— that defines The Smiths, their legacy lays with Johnny Marr. The man with the golden jangle is the godfather of the classic indie-pop guitar sound; and, amidst the simple, stripped-down, otherwise-stark-sounding The Smiths, it rings out brilliant, a sublime marriage of melody and tone that continues to influence countless bands with each passing year...

• Full review: The Smiths, The Smiths