“Hatful of Hollow”, The Smiths.
The “Hatful of Hollow” was the first album The Smiths had ever created in 1984. The Smiths are a British band with the following members Morissy, Johnny Mar, Andy Rourke, and Mike Joyce. “Hatful of Hollow” comprises of 15 songs. In this review, I will be talking about “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”, “Back to the Old House”, and “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”. The album got high reviews, all being 4 stars or 5 stars.
“Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”.
“Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” is a song about a morning for good fortune and better experiences. The narrator talks about how his life so far has been rough and unhappy. He says lines like “Good times for a change” and “See the luck I’ve had could make a good man bad.” Our narrator wants one good thing to happen in his life but he knows that it will be the first and last good thing to happen to him seeing as how his life has played out so far.
“Back to the Old House”
“Back to the Old House” starts with the narrator talking about how he would not like to go back to the old house. This is a metaphor of him saying he would not like to go back to the past and remember all of the bad memories as said in this line “I would rather not go Back to the old house There's too many bad memories Too many memories there.” Then in the next verse, the narrator talks about how he missed his chance with a love interest because he was too shy to tell her “And you never knew How much I really liked you Because I never even told you.” Then, in the next couple of lines, he asks if she is still back at the old or has moved away. Then in the next verse, he contradicts what he said earlier in the song by saying “I would love to go back to the old house.” However, he then says “But I never will I never will I never will.‘ This means that he can never go back to the past no matter how much he would like to.
“Heaven knows I’m Miserable Now”
The narrator of this song talks about how he is extremely sad and depressed. After thing he does he feels miserable. He shows us in this line “I was looking for a job and then I found a job And heaven knows I'm miserable now.” He also talks about how he is very lonely and nobody seems to notice or care about him as shown in this line “Two lovers entwined pass me by And heaven knows I'm miserable now.” In the verse, however, is where he says something really interesting. He says “In my life, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care If I live or die?” The narrator is done giving people who couldn’t care less about him time. He won’t waste any more of his precious time with these people.
There is a common theme within all of these songs. In every song, the narrator always has had something bad going on in their life. Within these songs, our narrators get to express the way they feel and how they view the life they have been given. I would highly suggest listening to one of “The Smiths'” albums as they have extremely poetic lyrics.
Jonathan Spencer
Nice post, I like how you go over the whole album and how it tells a story. Seems like some interesting songs I should listen to.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, I like the posts about songs, and some of these songs seem familiar, and I'm pretty sure I've heard a couple of them. Is this an emo band or just heavy metal people talking about their feelings or what is a theme of all the songs that you can find? Seems to me that they hate life and think everything is miserable.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a band I'm familiar with, but I'll give their album a listen. It's such a shame that popular artists today don't give much thought to song lyrics as this is the most common form of poetry that people consume. I appreciate the concern for song lyrics in people today because it's neglected in music today and that detracts from what used to be a very sophisticated form of artwork and is now a mindless thing to consume. Great post, thanks for writing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'm supposed to respond to 6th hour blog posts, but I think one of the best songs of the Smiths was "This Charming Man." My mom is a huge Smiths fan, having listened to it on repeat as a mopey teen. It's definitely not an emo band, though. Before I go, have you heard the covers of the Smiths songs by The Ukrainians (such as "Batyar," which is "Bigmouth Strikes Again")? They are so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI have not heard them I have to look into it. One of my favorite songs by them is "Suffer Little Children."
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