The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead (1986)

"I had a very, very strong intuition and feeling before we made The Queen Is Dead. And I felt a lot of pressure. I knew we had to deliver something that was great. I felt we were great, and we'd been called great, but I didn't want to get away with just coasting. (...) The other thing is, I wanted us to be as good as my heroes. From day one, I wanted us to be as important. Right from the off with The Smiths, in my head we were our own Rolling Stones. On top of that, we were being talked about in legendary terms. So you'd look at bands like The Who and The Small Faces - that pantheon of British bands - and think, 'Well, are we going to do it or not? Now's the time - it's the third album.'" (Johnny Marr)

Where: Jacobs Studios in Farnham, RAK Studios in London, Manchester, England

When: 16 juin 1986

Who: Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass), Mike Joyce (drums)

What: 1. The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty) 2. Frankly, Mr. Shankly 3. I Know It's Over 4. Never Had No One Ever 5. Cemetry Gates 6. Bigmouth Strikes Again 7. The Boy With The Thorn in His Side 8. Vicar In A Tutu 9. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out 10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

How: Produced by Morrissey and Johnny Marr

Up: un petit bout d'hymne de soiffards exilés tiré d'un obscur film sixties ("Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty"), un feedback de Marr et beat martial et tribal de Joyce, accord wah-wah gras, basse tour à tour ronde et claquante, violente charge anti-monarchique, 9 ans après les Pistols, "Oh Charles, don't you ever crave to appear on the front of The Daily Mail dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?", chant altier, désabusé et vandale de Morrissey qui tire dans tous les coins ("Passed the pub that saps your body and the church who'll snatch your money") et s'aventure dans des chœurs névrosés, Marr dans l'urgence mouline à tout va, rebranche la wah-wah sur la fin, en deux accords range The Edge au placard, final explosif largement instrumental ["The Queen Is Dead (Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty)"]... un bijou pop aux tonalités reggae expédié en 2"19, basse débonnaire de Rourke, assaut féroce et vipérin de Mozzer, au chant caressant, pique à l'encontre de Geoff Travis, boss du label Rough Trade "Frankly, Mr Shankly, since you ask / You are a flatulent pain in the arse", accords en retrait de Marr ["Frankly, Mr. Shankly"]... poignant désespoir d'un Morrissey rongé par la solitude, réduit à la régression, Otis Redding mancunien dépressif "Oh Mother I can feel the soil falling over my head / See, the sea wants to take me / The knife wants to cut me / Do you think you can help me", basse lourde et pudique de Rourke, Morrissey touché par la grâce exhale des soupirs, tout en une seule prise, premier coup de caisse clair à 1'35 de Joyce, enluminures mélancoliques de Marr, des cordes discrètes s'immiscent ["I Know It's Over "]... arpèges vénéneux et accords métalliques cinglants de Marr, Mozzer plus troublé que jamais ("I had a really bad dream / It lasted 20 years, 7 months, and 27 days / I never, I'm alone, and I / Never, ever oh ... had no one ever"), garde la classe, susurre, montée tragique dans les graves de Marr sur le pont pour ballade nauséeuse ["Never Had No One Ever"]... intro fraîche et vernale, Rourke gazouille, Marr dépoussière au médiator, ballade folko-gothique faussement guillerette à la gloire du plagiat pratiqué de longue date par Morrissey, hommage de dandy pilleur à dandy voleur "Keats and Yeats are on your side / But you lose / Because Wilde is on mine" ["Cemetry Gates"]... rythme acoustique implacable de Marr, Mozzer mitraille d'emblée "Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking / when I said I'd like to smash every tooth / in your head", virevolte autour de ligne mélodique, se prend pour la Pucelle "Now I know how Joan of Arc felt / As the flames rose to her roman nose / And her Walkman started to melt", chœurs craquants d'une pas si mystérieuse Ann Coats, hétéronyme potache ["Bigmouth Strikes Again"]... ballade sans prétention, chant dolent, instable, agité, craquelé par l'émotion ("The boy with the thorn in his side / Behind the hatred there lies / A plundering desire for love"), vocalises torturées de Morrissey pour le final ["The Boy With the Thorn in His Side"]... la profession de foi en forme de faux rockabilly "The vicar in a tutu / He's not strange / He just wants to live his life this way", Marr égrène les arpèges et joue à Scotty Moore ["Vicar in a Tutu"]... sommet probable de l'album, refrain morbide, terrassant "And if a double-decker bus / Crashes into us / To die by your side / Is such a heavenly way to die / And if a ten ton truck / Kills the both of us / To die by your side / Well the pleasure, the privilege is mine", Rourke et Joyce efficaces comme jamais entre efficacité et créativité, Marr pilier discret, irremplaçable ["There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"]... Morrissey se déride pour le final ("As Anthony said to Cleopatra / As he opened a crate of ale"), Marr sacrilège qui s'ignore fraye ouvertement avec l'univers de Robert Smith ["Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"]... la pochette verte romantique et macabre, sépulcrale, d'un Alain Delon insoumis, écorché vif...

Down: vraiment pour chipoter : des incursions, rares et dispensables, de synthés un peu envahissantes sur "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"...