SMITHS - Hatful of Hollow LP

The Smiths must have sounded like nothing else in 1983. The band were a live tour de force but also poetic and lyrical. Match the Byrds like guitar playing and a particular kind of Manchester melancholy with a vocalist who sounds like a demented seal and there you have it.

Hatful of Hollow was a wonderful compilation of the Smiths earliest moments with many tracks taken from John Peel sessions. This gives them a rawer feel to their album contemporaries but unlike many session compilations this works pretty brilliantly as an album. It also contains early singles and B sides showcasing some of their very best songs such as "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", "William, It Was Really Nothing", "Girl Afraid" and "How Soon Is Now?"