10 Songs That Ruined Otherwise Perfect Albums
1. Meat Is Murder - "Meat Is Murder"
It would be fair to say that Stephen Morrissey is an opinionated individual. While his views have become more questionable (i.e openly racist) as he has aged, in The Smiths’ heyday his pet cause was animal rights. A noble pursuit, only he approached it with a typical lack of subtlety, and almost tanked arguably the band’s best album in the process.
“Meat Is Murder” is a tightly constructed album with some of the Manchester band’s finest ever moments (opener “The Headmaster Ritual” most notably). Some non-UK versions even include “How Soon Is Now?”, The Smiths’ most anthemic tune. But the sound effect laden, bluntly didactic title track is a major misstep that ends the record on a real low point.
Morrissey believes in the message of the album title, and good on him for writing songs in line with his principles, but the slaughterhouse vibe conjured by the record’s closer is not effective. It starts off weird, then it gets goofy, and by the end it’s simply annoying. It’s unlikely the song converted anyone to veganism, but you can bet it converted a few to not being Smiths fans anymore.