Louder Than Bombs
The Smiths’ essential compilation album turns 39
Released thirty-nine years ago today (30 March 1987), the Smiths’ Louder Than Bombs is a landmark compilation album that effectively serves as an alternate gateway into the band’s catalog. Originally assembled for the U.S. market, the album gathers essential singles, B-sides, and rarities that had previously been scattered or unavailable to American listeners. In doing so, it functioned as a convenient stand-in for earlier UK releases, offering a cohesive snapshot of the Smiths at their creative peak.
The album includes the scrapped single “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby” (which was passed over in favor of “Shoplifters of the World Unite”) in a shorter mix, while “Stretch Out and Wait” appears in its B-side version (from the “Shakespeare’s Sister” single) with alternate lyrics, and “Ask” features a slightly longer, different mix than its original single release.
Tracklist:
A1 – Is It Really So Strange?
A2 – Sheila Take A Bow
A3 – Shoplifters Of The World Unite
A4 – Sweet And Tender Hooligan
A5 – Half A Person
A6 – London
B1 – Panic
B2 – Girl Afraid
B3 – Shakespeare’s Sister
B4 – William, It Was Really Nothing
B5 – You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby
B6 – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
C1 – Ask
C2 – Golden Lights
C3 – Oscillate Wildly
C4 – These Things Take Time
C5 – Rubber Ring
C6 – Back To The Old House
D1 – Hand In Glove
D2 – Stretch Out And Wait
D3 – Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
D4 – This Night Has Opened My Eyes
D5 – Unloveable
D6 – Asleep
Rather than feeling like a loose collection, the sequencing gives the album a distinct identity, helping it resonate as a unified listening experience. Its popularity quickly extended beyond its initial purpose, becoming a sought-after import in the UK before eventually receiving a domestic release.
More than just a compilation, Louder Than Bombs has come to be seen as a defining statement of the Smiths’ sound - melancholic, sharp, and profoundly literary. The album’s title is drawn from Canadian poet and novelist Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept1, reflecting Morrissey’s enduring connection to poetic intensity. Even the cover art, featuring playwright Shelagh Delaney, underscores the literary influences that shaped his songwriting. Critically acclaimed and later certified Gold in the U.S., the album stands as an essential, near-canonical portrait of one of indie music’s most influential bands.
“Everything flows like the Mississippi over a devastated earth, which drinks unsurfeited, and augments the liquid with waterfalls of gratitude; which raises a sound of praise to deafen all doubters forever; to burst their shamed eardrums with the roar of proof, louder than bombs or screams or the inside ticking of remorse. Not all the poisonous tides of the blood I have spilt can influence these tidals of love.”