Meat Is Murder

33⅓ Main Series #5

by Joe Pernice

A Catholic high school near Boston in 1985. A time of suicides, gymnasium humiliations, smoking for beginners, asthma attacks, and incendiary teenage infatuations. Infatuations with a girl (Allison), with a band (The Smiths) and with an album, Meat is Murder , that was so raw, so vivid and so melodic that you could cling to it like a lifeboat in a storm. In this brilliant novella Joe Pernice tells the story of an asthmatic kid's discovery of Meat is Murder. Here is a short exceropt: One morning as I was jogging my way past the bronze plaque commemorating the deaths of one student and one motorcyclist, my necktie flapping like a windsock, Ray floored the brake pedal of his Dodge as he closed in on me. Fifty mile an hour traffic came to a screeching, nearly murderous halt behind him. He leaned over and rolled down the passenger side window in one fluid motion. He dispensed with formalities while I marveled at the audacity of his driving and, tossing something at me, winked and said, "Here. I'm going to kill myself." He pegged the gas, leaving a surprisingly good patch of rubber for such a shitty car. In the gutter, sugared with sand put down during the winter's last snow, I saw written in red felt ink on masking tape stuck to a smoky-clear cassette: "Smiths: Meat."

Genres: Music, Fiction, Pop Culture, American, Audiobook

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

And even though I was doing my best to avoid them- not the other way around - it made me feel so lonely and out of place I stayed down by my shoes and cried. There were so many terrible things that could happen to them. Any number of ruinous events could nullify all of their best attempts. Break them apart like a saltine. Their family, with a combined age of thirty-five and some change, could tumble like a house of Christening thank-you cards. What made me most sad was that I doubted I'd ever have so much to lose.

This passage made me feel the wistful almost smile/almost sigh. You know when you see two people with heads bent together and you wish that someone would bend their head close to yours. What would you be talking about and then the sigh because you feel too alone to make up the other half for someone else. You worry and hope for people from an outside place and spill it out from your inside place. You'd actually cry. Never mind that's uncool. It's my favorite part of the story. It was almost too little too late to get to wanting to see that/not wanting to see that in other people for a story about a kid/adult who is avoiding the point about people who are not there. Joe Pernice is of The Pernice Brothers. It's honestly been such a long time since I've listened to them that my mind is only conjuring up old playlists made for an ex-boyfriend and then the feelings are more about that than the music. You know when you want to find someone else who has your words for you. This is his first work of fiction according to the back of the book blurb. Side note before I do my thing and forget real book review stuff (I can't wait to get to that point): The 33 1/3 series is a mixed bag affair. The books are good or bad depending on who is writing about the classic albums. I guess if you like locker room ass patting your idea of the good ones versus the bad might differ from mine. My favorite short story about dependency on the music that says it all for you was Masters of Reality (Sabbath) that John Darnielle (of the glorious The Mountain Goats) wrote. I read about this one on amazon. Words of praise made me hopeful it would be that kind of 33 1/3 book. Well, can't let them speak for me. Okay, this story is the feeling of forgetting the music because it makes you think about the track list of the songs written in the hand of someone you once longed for. Your ears become borrowed on theirs instead of words given to you like in the music you wanted. I wanted to remember what that looked like and not in the yeah, you know how it is kind of way. More horny dreams that don't look like anything. Pernice takes too damned long to get to the what you have to lose and more time on the hey, remember that girl who loved The Smiths. If I loved The Smiths would I be just like her? Would words spring up around us and I would have everything to say. The words are horny dreams that don't sound like anything. Okay, Pernice's was more about sex than about the wanting to be them feeling. But I didn't feel his desire at all. For me Morrissey's sex is also about wanting to be that person. I wanted to be him wanting to be other people and wanted to fit in somewhere. Hear what those words were. I kind of thought the point would be about the longing for something to have and be than just hoping it'd fall into place. The generic you know how it is got rid of the heads bent together for me. It's no good when you know how it is. I don't know how it is. I want to know how it is for everyone.

When Morrissey sings "I've seen this happen in other people's lives and now it is happening in mine" on Meat is Murder track "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" it has power over me. I feel a connection between their lives and his. He sees him and he sees them.

I have been thinking a lot about what you have to lose because of another book that I recently reread. Of course it was David Grossman again because I'm attached to his nothing to lose honesty in a way that is kindred spirit to Morrissey's. I'm longing for some kind of help to be heart on sleeve and not lose. There's the it happened in their lives. There's the part that's happened in mine. I think about those lyrics a lot. The happened in mine I would lose if I ever stopped being emotional Mariel. The happened in other people's lives... That's lost without the happened in mine. I don't even see any other way to do it. I love Morrissey because I feel normal listening to hi. It's like Pernice didn't get it why anyone would even love Morrissey (it's because he has something to lose in the happened in other's lives part and he is so open anyway!) when he made his teenage boy a generic you-know-how-it-is who doesn't lay on the bedroom floor of the gay teen who doesn't fit in in high school or the girl who is in danger of being a real life Jane Austen's Persuasion and not listening to her own heart because the bible belt community of the town she lives in gets their we know what is best for you hooks into her heart and throws the fish out of water corpse to breathe without air on the land. Whatever if all their problems are solved when they step out of this town. I can't believe a story like that. The kid is on the bedroom floor and the bed and the dresser and the bookcase and the record player play on strings not made out of the guts of your own neighbors cat. Synthetic tennis racket strings not made out of the bleeding intestinal body parts of someone who felt just like you. No Meat was Murdered it was things and stuff. Posters and t-shirts and buttons are all over Pernice's story. Leave this town. You all came from the same one, right? Uhhh no. U2 are name dropped a lot (I couldn't listen to Under a Blood Red Sky in my teens because it put me back to changing schools and not fitting in again as if I hadn't been saved by another move and another school). I could have forgotten which band would have shone their representational this is my life on this boy at times. Could have been Echo and the Bunnymen they are also in their as much as The Smiths. It is Allison (there are other faceless hot girls and boys) and he wants her now. She likes The Smiths.

There's a part where he tries to jerk off on the toilet to Rusholme Ruffians. It's not working. I felt like Hermione in the first Harry Potter film when she pisses off Ron in Charms class. "Stop, stop, stop. You're doing it WRONG. You're going to poke someone's EYE out." You're doing it wrong! You don't jerk off to Morrissey to jerk off to someone else! He's not going to poke anyone's out here. I didn't feel it.

It's not Morrissey because Morrissey would be like the kid who would see the little kid on the shoulders of his too young parents with a dad out of work and the mom too old too soon. Something like that. I didn't want to know that he didn't want to think about the kid in school who just killed himself. I didn't want to be on the beach in the end because he decides that killing himself is something to do. It's his chord changes and musical know how and starting a band and you never get past "I got into music to get girls" interview. I didn't hear their music when he's in their band and in his own band. What was the band? What were they saying over their instruments? That's not Morrissey and The Smiths. Morrissey would look at the mom who didn't get it and the kid in school and it'd never be remember in the 1980s when it was high school and it was just like that and then it ends and everyone is such good friends. Hey, we started a band.

I'm picking on this guy's first work of fiction. I don't know I kind of liked it towards the end when he started acknowledging that there was something about his friends to notice. They were dying. Something was going on and it was forever. They lost! It was kind of too little to be like the Morrissey nothing to lose, though. He even had some rather poetic lines in there that just made me wish I liked the story more than I did. But I don't want to be one of those people that knows chord changes and that was a good line when the heart strings were ripped out and turned into something you could keep in your bedroom. That's what happened. That was Meat is Murder. Maybe the kids he doesn't want to think about because he'd rather think about banging Allison were supposed to be belated experience. Sit on his couch and sit on her couch when he calls her and she doesn't come to the phone. It was the boy Paul. Paul had something to lose. I never hear Allison. If Paul is there let me hear him. Put him on the phone. Someone be there. I was sad that the drowning in the ocean wasn't any damned losing thing. What the hell was that about? If you want some girl to see something in you because you like THIS VOICE then what the hell, right? You have to have to want something so damned bad. So what was it in Meat is Murder that made him want it bad? Morrissey asks if you hear him when you sleep. He's by your bedroom window. He slowly passes by. Pick up your phone and you could hear him. He donated his organs to science. I wanted someone who wasn't afraid to speak up and say this makes me feel something and it's my heart. It's a chance. You don't give up because if it is your dying breath you are saying something. You don't go to the beach and drown to say something, do you? Track listings in Allison's handwriting. Let's call a handwriting specialist. Put them on the line.

This is mine. I wish the story was about listening to this voice and seeing something in Allison and those other kids (dead or alive. Alive now or dead now. Since he's looking back). Siiiiiighs. I wonder what Pernice's other stories would look like. I think this probably went down like someone asked him to contribute to 33 1/3 and he liked Morrissey's chord changes and thought I did to. Put me on the phone. I want to say I love Morrissey and The Smiths because he liked you and he never told you how much he did and he meant to. Something was lost. I can hear it. Speak for me Morrissey. I want to be you. I want to have something to lose. I want to say it all and their lives and happening in mine and I never told you. I never wanted anything more in my life than to have friends and be welcome and this story could have been about that sad feeling when you see it happening to others and don't know if it'll happen in yours. You listen to The Smiths because they listen to the Smiths and you wonder if you'll hear what they hear and the magical door will open. The kids left him and he avoids thinking about them and then he dies himself and never sees what Morrissey had been saying all along. If you never have it happen in yours you could at least see it happen in theirs. So put them on the line. I wish I had what they had and Morrissey helps me put me on the line. There's always that. That's what the feeling was. I didn't get that hope to get away from book sense clicking place I wanted because I see it happening in mine like this kid. How do I say what I want to say about The Smiths? We lose together. That's what I've got.

(If you're a trivia nerd you'll note the American local based on the presence of How Soon is Now? It was not on the UK release because it had been a single. It was The Smiths first hit in the USA and the American label included it to generate more interest on the strength of the hit. I liked knowing this to imagine listeners in the '80s listening far away from the UK listeners. Like when you get used to a playlist and expect to hear songs after another one. It would be different in the USA.)

[Nicholai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's talk about this book.
It isn't really about the Smiths album, which is good, cause I like to eat meat. It's more about this kid thats really into the Smiths album and how hes dorky and way to in touch with his feelings, and basically every other quality that 20 years later would become something women were actually attracted to.

The thing with this book is, its like 100 pages, and you really wont be disappointed. It's as simple as that, a story is told in 100 pages, it takes a short enough time to read, and you will enjoy yourself. The creative use of adjectives is great in very nitpicked descriptions of various things in the book that really give you a very zoned-in feel to what the writer is trying to get across. It's great at painting a picture of what it was like being a teenager growing up in the 80's.

If you grew up in the 90's read it.

If you grew up in the 00's like you would seriously even listen to my suggestion. Go listen to some Weezer, punk.

If you grew up in the 80's skip it, you probably know the drill.

If you grew up in the 70's you probably lived through this but from a different perspectives than a teenager, so go read it if you are interested in different perspectives and shit.

If you grew up anytime before the 70's go read some Hemmingway.

[Mattia Ravasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7exu...

This one's weird - I liked it a lot, while also feeling it was all over the place. A very petty part of me wants to say there's something quintessentially dicky about writing a novella for a series of critical works (Jonathan Lethem didn't do it, why should you?), but that's neither here nor there. The story's very good, but leads nowhere (fast).
Portrays a very vivid picture of what being a Smiths fan in 80s suburban America meant.

[Ric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meat is Murder is one of my favorite albums of all time, and even though this story was okay I do wish it was more nonfiction. It would’ve been awesome to read more about the album itself and not a story of a teenager discovering his love for the album. It was short and ended sort of abruptly, but I also don’t feel like I would’ve needed much more to read in the story. Unfortunately a miss for me.

[Erik Swedlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

The punk Bildungsroman is one of my favorite genres. Despite some occasional purple prose and head scratchers, this novel hits the sweet spot.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading the Thirty-Three-and-a-Third series of books, which are like extended liner notes to albums for people who don't think the originals had enough liner notes to begin with. So far, the series has been hit and miss. Didn't care must for Dusty in Memphis, but the book about Love's Forever Changes and the Kink's The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society really helped me have an appreciation for those two albums.

Unfortunately, Joe Pernice's book on The Smiths' album, Meat is Murder, is a miss...as far as helping you understand or appreciate the album more. For one thing, as he writes in an author's note underneath the acknowledgements, "If you think of the 33 1/3 series of books as a kind of extended family...then my book is the black sheep: it's fiction." It's more than likely fiction of the "write about what you know" type, too, as it purports to be a memoir of Pernice (or the narrator, if you will) and his discovery of the album. I generally despise this kind of memoir, fictional or not, as I read enough of the white-suburban-my-childhood-really-sucked genre when I was going to graduate school in creative writing. Sorry, but if you want to read about a horrible childhood, read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes; privileged white kids who think Morrissey speaks to them because he feels their pain just sound whiny.

But halfway through the story (which, although is presented as a standalone book here, is more of a novella or novelette), I started to kind of like the narrator, asthma and all. I didn't necessarily sympathize with him, but I did start to cheer for him and hope that he was going to be able to achieve the little victories: be able to ask the girl for a date, form the band, survive another school day. And just when I thought the book was going get somewhere, it ended. Which is another problem with the stories I read in graduate school: no sense of completion.

So I don't recommend this book for Smiths fans or would-be learners regarding their album, and I hesitate to suggest it on its own as fiction either. Thankfully it was short.

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

That joke isn't funny anymore...

I give this book 4.5 stars. I mean it is good. It is the perfect length for what it is doing, it is a fast read, a couple of hours. It is suppose to be a representation of what it was like to grow up in the era of the smiths, but it felt more like what it is always like to grow up. It seems to be an attempt to deal with death, mainly suicide.

and from my reading the book truly ends up being about "the joke" which is perhaps a metaphor for many other things.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I turned 14 in 1985, and “Meat Is Murder” by the Smiths had a pretty big influence on my life - I’m 48 now, and I haven’t eaten meat since. I feel slightly different about Morrissey these days (turns out he’s a bit of a dick), but as an adolescent I worshipped Smiths records.

This book is NOT your usual 33⅓ publication. There’s no insight into the background, composition, recording, release or promotion of the album, nor is there any discussion of the music itself. Instead, we are treated to an account of an American high-schooler as he tries to make sense of the usual teenage traumas (friends, girls, booze, pop music), all happening while “Meat Is Murder” plays in the background. I suspect it’s largely fiction, and the author admits as much right at the beginning.

It’s a pretty cool story though, full of rhythm and brilliantly narrated, populated by an entertaining cast of characters moving wildly through adolescence and, like “Meat Is Murder” itself, it makes a decent fist of nailing the teen-angst thing. I raced through it in pretty much one sitting.

But, a 33⅓ book, really?
I enjoyed the story, but I’m ultimately left with a huge sense of missed opportunity. Damn.

[Mason Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a fun, brilliant anecdote about how an album affected one’s life. I think this series of book usually takes a more “deep dive” approach on the actual band and making of the record, but this story was funny, thoughtful, sad, and nostalgic all in one. And just 100 pages of great writing!

[Boz Reacher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh god this sucks asssssss

[Paul Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First impression: no other book in the 33 1/3 series is going to top this. Joe Pernice has completely thrown aside the notion of dissecting the songs, and instead written a hundred page piece of fiction inspired by Meat is Murder, the album that the book is ostensibly about. And, truthfully, said piece of fiction is so good I don’t even feel worthy of telling you how good it is, much less pound the typer discussing it at length. This has become a book I’ve recommended to many, and when they protest that they don’t like (or have never heard of) the Smiths, the answer I give them encapsulates all that’s wonderful about this book: “You don’t have to.” Pernice is a gifted writer who’s long since found his voice, and his narrative is at times so poignant I teared up, and at times so hilarious I spit up my Moxie. The story unfolds with that illusion of effortlessness on the part of the author so vital to the reader feeling invited in. You know, it’s just you and Joe, talkin’. While Meat is Murder is a crucial album to the book’s main character — and the soundtrack to his adolescence - the story doesn’t depend on prior familiarity. As a reader, you know it’s important to this guy, and you sort of know why — and that’s plenty. Pernice doesn’t swagger with his vocabulary, which is damn welcome; it’s a tendency that pushes the reader away and introduces mistrust (more on this in a later post, on another volume, and with much more vitriol.)

[Patrick Sprunger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joe Perniece's impression of Meat Is Murder is somewhere between Jonathan Lethem's Fortress of Solitude and a version of The Wonder Years set in the John Hughes universe. It's a pretty narrow tale of a standard issue, suburban white heterosexual teenage American sexual quest. Which is disappointing considering this was supposedly penned in contemplation of a thing as nuanced, androgynous, and confused as The Smiths.

In the amount of time it takes to read the novella one could have, instead, listened to the album itself three times and perhaps experienced a wider swath of feeling.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few entries in the series where the book is like a novel. It's about a teenage boy who finds solace in The Smiths. It is well written and has charm.

[T.J. Gillespie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike other books in the 33 1/3 series that either give some critical perspective on an album's legacy or a historical breakdown on an album's conception and recording, this is a fictionalized novella that uses the Smiths' 1985 album not only as a plot device but as a thematic thread.

The narrator, a sensitive teenage wanna-be bassist wanders through the halls of his Boston Catholic school, filled with alienation, romantic loneliness, loss, and a bad case of unrequited love. Echoing throughout the story are allusions to the songs and lyrics and subject matters.

Like Mark Spitz's similarly Smiths-inspired novel How Soon is Never? Pernice takes a love of Morrissey and Marr and makes a personal, moving story. Do we have a lot of these stories? Probably. Is there anything new here? Probably not. But still, if you are of a certain age and of a certain disposition and have a certain musical taste, it's perfect.

It makes you feel "sixteen, clumsy and shy," when you'd put on a pair of headphones and hear "the songs / That made you smile / And the songs that made you cry /And the songs that saved your life."

[Pamela Rossi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-read from I don't know how long ago, because I lost all the dates (and often other information) when Shelfari closed down and my bookshelf got moved to Goodreads. But I think I read it about 10 years ago. Did I rate or review it at that time? I'm not sure, and it's probably just as well that I can't remember because I also couldn't remember anything about the book. Outside of it being narrated by a teenaged male in the mid-1980s, and even then I forgot it was him reflecting on events from 15 years prior...and that it was just WOW. It's still just WOW. With any luck, I'll forget everything about it this time too, and I'll get to read it like I'm reading it for the first time again in another 10 years.

[Jessica O · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not going to finish this book, but feel the need to comment because the first five pages of this book are Peak White Guy Fuckery™.

What he covered in that short amount I read:
-breaking up with a girl 2 years after he started to thinking about it
-being really hungover and not willing to give up his seat on an overbooked Amtrak
-listening to some tween boys telling dirty jokes and getting involved in the conversation
-jerking off
-one, offhanded sentence, about purchasing the album

If you're a devotee of The Smiths, read this. If you, like me, are just working your way through the 33 1/3 series...? Skip it.

Yes, I know it's a work of fiction. Still Peak White Guy Fuckery™.

[JJ Lehmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. By far, my least favorite of the 33⅓ books I've read. This was purely a work of fiction. It is a story of a young man who likes The Smiths. It is hard to understand how the editors allowed this to happen.
I'm starting to get the sense that when some of the authors received the book proposal for this series, thought, "You know what would be interesting is to not write about the album." Except that of the first 5 books I've read, two of the books have taken this approach. That's not much of a rebellion.
My hope is that this will be the last, but I fear it will not.
Take the book away... I absolutely love The Smiths, and this album is incredible. My disappointment is not with the band, but with the author, Joe Pernice, and, to a certain extent, the editors of this series.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely unlike every other book (I think) that exists in this series, while taking it as a given that they are all done completely differently except for all the rest of them are nonfiction. Which is to say this purports to be a novella of a moment in this teenage boy’s life where he’s obsessed in equal measures with the latest Smiths record and with a girl and with making suicide jokes to his bestie as their life has inadvertently handed them some nearby examples and how he just sort of sweats his way through a school year full of longing and wonder and obsession. It was quite fun.
.
But also: was it autobiographical? It kinda felt like it might be at times. Heh.

[Luka Pajković · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neuobičajena knjiga za ovu seriju knjiga jer ne pristupa esejistički i istraživački albumu, već autor piše o svom periodu tinejdžerstva kad je izašao Meat is Murder. Konceptualno zvuči užasno, ali autor cepa dovoljni balans melankolije, apatije, tinejdžerskih mušica i coming of age dijelova, a to se sve skupa fino paralelizira sa istim emocijskim pridjevima koji odgovaraju The Smithsima i njihovom albumu. Knjiga je kratka, kraj je mrvicu iznenadno gotov, ali sasvim fora koncept za pročitat.


3.5/5

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Looked this up before and was a tad disappointed it was going to be fiction rather than the more traditional 33 1/3 research into an album. I found the story was interesting enough, but only superficially dealt with the album itself, rather it presented the album as a (notable) part of a time period (or an aesthetic). I felt I knew the Smiths cult already enough to guess this approach. That said, the personal account approach gave some insights into the time period and how the album was received across the pond.
Would have preferred to see a UK author tackle this album, personally.
5-/10

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded down. This 33 1/3 book is one of the least involved with its subject matter. This fictional slice of a high school Smith fans' life in 1985 is as middle of the road as it gets. The author, a lyricist and poet, is two times too clever in every paragraph. This showiness, while meant to be clever and incisive, creates a barrier between the reader and the prose. While I've long known that reading about people doing drugs is boring, this book (not about people doing drugs) is proof that reading about teenagers masturbating is tiresome.

[Kyle Worrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A work of fiction that feels more than just a little autobiographical. Didn't overstay it's welcome and was wildly successful in making me re-listen to all of The Smiths records starting with the titular Meat is Murder, which I realize I had been wildly underrating. The Smiths have always seemed like a band best appreciated by listening to singles/compilation...but the greatest gift this book gave me was the re-introduction of their 4 proper albums....thanks.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Along with the Black Sabbath Masters of Reality book by John Darnielle, this is my favorite of the series so far, although initially, the author mentioned Hatful of Hollow more than Meat is Murder, which is fine as I love HoH, but I was confused. I like the fictional aspect of the story of the album and how those of us living in the mid-80s were feeling when this album was released.

[Fred Cheney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contrary to the rest of this series and its resulting podcast, this is a work of fiction. However, it was an entertaining read. I found it cleverly written as it includes lyrics and references to the titular album scattered throughout. It's about as dark as you would expect a story about a Smiths' fan to be. I'm reading another book in this series and it is very different than the podcast.

[keatssycamore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Example of how inconsistent these are in tone and subject matter. I enjoyed reading about a high schooler from my time (the eighties) with many of the postures and all of the motivations (girls) but if you like the entries that tell you about the making of an album then this seemingly truncated memoir isn't for you.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading some of the other 33 1/3 books and learning a lot about some albums that I love, I tried reading this one. However, much to my chagrin, this is not actually about the album, but instead is about some teenage musings of a The Smiths fan. If you are actually interested in reading about the Meat Is Murder album, don't read this one.

[Chase Gallion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this and the style of writing. So much about suicide though and that’s always going to be hard. In fact this is just outright bleak in many ways. It’s honest though. The world is bleak. There was some quote in this about the comfort of longing.. yeah.

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for class but I was so excited to get into it. It was unfortunately terrible and barely discussed the album at all. The blurb on the back said it was Joe Pernice’s first work of fiction and I hope to
God it is also his last.

[Melody Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

im not some guy from boston in 1985 but he’s literally me from crying to ‘that joke isn’t funny anymore’ to scratching someone’s initial into your leg like omd 😨 it felt like i was reading a biography it was so scary, i only took one star off bcz it’s a bit too short

[Patrick Vandewalle · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's got NOTHING to do with the record.

I suspect Pernice just added 'Smiths', 'MIM' and 'Hatful Of Hollow' in an already existing (highly mediocre) story, just to be able to get it included in the 33 1/3 series.

Worthless and a complete waste of money.