Recorded at Amazon Studios, Liverpool and Ridge Farm, Surrey, England.

MEAT IS MURDER found the Smiths further honing their craft, tightening and brightening their sound. Unlikely heroes at home in the UK, and starting to break through the cracks in the States, they latched inextricably onto a generation of youth on a global scale with this album, making vegetarians and animal-rights activists out of more than a few of their overcoat-wearing devotees. The most straight-ahead of the Smiths' albums in terms of production, MEAT IS MURDER is a rootsy effort, driven largely by Johnny Marr's lush acoustic guitar arrangements.

The album, however, is far from folky. While the frenetic pace and dolorous lyric "Rusholm Ruffians" and the gentle, haunting "Well I Wonder" have acoustic backbones, the blistering fury of "What She Said" and the cascading echoes of "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" are purely electric, and are exactly the reason behind the reverence with which Marr found himself being graced from here on. Morrissey takes a humorous stab at royalty (not his last by any means) over the quick shuffle of "Nowhere Fast." The album closes on an intense, epic note with the dramatic, compelling title track, a graphic anthem for the cause celebre of vegetarianism.