Album of the Day

Some 10 months after The Smiths performed their last concert, the U.K. indie quartet's fourth and final studio album arrived in stores. The title of STRANGEWAYS HERE WE COME references a notorious Manchester prison and if it was recorded as the band was splintering, you wouldn't know it from the music, which stands as the group's most varied and elaborately produced. On the strength of such tracks as “Girlfriend in a Coma,” “I Started Something I Couldn't Finish” and “Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before,” the collection went Gold on both sides of the Atlantic. Frontman Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr and drummer Mike Joyce have all called STRANGEWAYS HERE WE COME the best Smiths album, and we’ll cue it up now to wish Morrissey a happy birthday.