Recorded in England in Winter 1985.

Meat Is Murder may have been a holding pattern, but The Queen Is Dead is the Smiths' great leap forward, taking the band to new musical and lyrical heights. Opening with the storming title track, The Queen Is Dead is a harder-rocking record than anything the Smiths had attempted before, but that's only on a relative scale -- although the backbeat is more pronounced, the group certainly doesn't rock in a conventional sense. Instead, Johnny Marr has created a dense web of guitars, alternating from the minor-key rush of "Bigmouth Strikes Again" and the faux rockabilly of "Vicar in a Tutu" to the bouncy acoustic pop of "Cemetry Gates" and "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side," as well as the lovely melancholy of "I Know It's Over" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out." And the rich musical bed provides Morrissey with the support for his finest set of lyrics. Shattering the myth that he is a self-pitying sap, Morrissey delivers a devastating set of clever, witty satires of British social mores, intellectualism, class, and even himself. He also crafts some of his finest, most affecting songs, particularly in the wistful "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" and the epic "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out," two masterpieces that provide the foundation for a remarkable album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Arguably the Smiths' masterpiece, THE QUEEN IS DEAD found the band at the artistic apex of a career that knew few lows. More than any of their other albums, THE QUEEN IS DEAD represents the elegance, craftsmanship and humor for which the Smiths are remembered. Opening the album, the explosive title track is filled with vintage punk-era iconoclastic rage, wherein Morrissey tears at the very fabric of the British monarchy atop the howling feedback and swirling chords of Johnny Marr and the pounding fury of Rourke and Joyce (whose punk roots were never so apparent).

THE QUEEN IS DEAD also contains some of the band's most disarmingly beautiful work. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" bears a lush accompaniment and utterly miserable lyric, while the chiming, heavenly atmosphere of "The Boy With A Thorn In His Side," as convincing an ode to the sensitive outcast as has ever been penned. "Bigmouth Strikes Again," the album's most recognizable tune, is a dizzying adrenaline rush. And the upbeat tunesmanship of Marr was never in sharper contrast with Morrissey's lyrical ire than on the bouncy, wistful "Cemetry Gates."