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Louder Than Bombs

A double album of singles and B-sides made for the American market, then issued in Britain.
The Smiths, 1987

Released
30 March 1987
Label
Sire
Type
compilation

Sire released it in the United States on 30 March 1987 as the counterpart of the British compilation The World Won't Listen. It gathered singles and nearly all the B-sides that had not been available there. Because it sold well on import in Britain, Rough Trade issued it at home in May 1987 at the price of a single album. The title is borrowed from Elizabeth Smart's prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, and the cover shows the playwright Shelagh Delaney.

It reached 62 on the Billboard 200 and 38 in Britain, and the RIAA certified it gold in 1990. Rolling Stone ranked it 365 in 2003. Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork found it much better sequenced than The World Won't Listen, in four six-song suites on the original double LP.

Track listing

  1. Is It Really So Strange?3:02
  2. Sheila Take a Bow2:41
  3. Shoplifters of the World Unite2:57
  4. Sweet and Tender Hooligan3:33
  5. Half a Person3:35
  6. London2:06
  7. Panic2:17
  8. Girl Afraid2:48
  9. Shakespeare's Sister2:08
  10. William, It Was Really Nothing2:10
  11. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby3:21
  12. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now3:34
  13. Ask3:15
  14. Golden Lights2:38
  15. Oscillate Wildly3:26
  16. These Things Take Time2:21
  17. Rubber Ring3:46
  18. Back to the Old House3:04
  19. Hand in Glove3:10
  20. Stretch Out and Wait2:37
  21. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want1:50
  22. This Night Has Opened My Eyes3:40
  23. Unloveable3:55
  24. Asleep4:16

Personnel

More from The Smiths

The Smiths (1984), Hatful of Hollow (1984), Meat Is Murder (1985), The Queen Is Dead (1986), Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)

Sources

  1. Louder Than Bombs, Wikipedia
  2. The Smiths Complete, Pitchfork (2011-11-18)