Album of the Day

On this day in 1982, The Smiths made their live debut at Manchester club The Ritz; the arrival of the quartet marked a sea change in British alternative music. The Smiths' self-titled debut, which followed a couple of years later, featured balefully crooned, literate lyrics paired with jangly Rickenbacker guitar work; songs like “Hand In Glove” and “What Difference Does It Make?” were quite unlike anything else on radio at the time. Strange as this new sound was, there was something deeply affecting about Morrissey's fey, world-weary persona and guitarist Johnny Marr's precise arrangements, and listeners responded, driving the collection to #2 on the U.K. chart. The first of numerous triumphs for this seminal group, THE SMITHS stands as one of the landmark albums of the 1980s.