About

Several months after releasing their first album, the Smiths issued the singles and rarities collection Hatful of Hollow, establishing a tradition of repackaging their material as many times and as quickly as possible. While several cuts on Hatful of Hollow are BBC versions of songs from The Smiths, the versions on the compilation are nervy and raw - and they're also not the selling point of the record.

The Smiths treated singles as individual entities, not just ways to promote an album, and many of their finest songs were never issued on their studio albums. Hatful of Hollow contains many of these classics, including the sweet rush of "William, It Was Really Nothing," and the sardonic "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now," the tongue-in-cheek lament of "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want," the wistful "Back to the Old House," "Girl Afraid," and the pulsating, tremolo-laced masterpiece "How Soon Is Now?" With such strong material forming the core of the album, it's little wonder that Hatful of Hollow is as consistent as The Smiths and arguably captures the excitement surrounding the band even better. — (via AllMusic)

Already the darlings of the evening tastemakers at Radio 1 and the music press, Morrissey and Marr's Smiths had, by 1984, yet to make a satisfying entry in the album stakes. Their eponymous debut had some fine songs, but the production had left them sounding rather tinny and un-finished. Luckily their prodigious work-rate and sensible decision to use Radio 1 sessions as substitute studio/rehearsal time meant that they were soon perfecting their recorded sound as well as honing their formidable writing skills. Equally luckily someone at Rough Trade noticed, and a deal was struck to release these sessions along with some non-album A and B sides as Hatful Of Hollow. In one fell swoop the mistakes of the previous 6 months were forgotten.

Hatful Of Hollow's versions of the debut’s material, including ''Hand In Glove'', ''Reel Around The Fountain'' and ''What Difference Does It Make'', suddenly come alive in this quick and dirty environment – more closely resembling the live favourites that had won them acclaim in the first place. But it was the new material that really shone here. Singles ''William It Was Really Nothing'' and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'' revealed giant steps in both Morrissey's deadpan witticisms and Marr's way with a punchy hook, while ''Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want'', ''Back To The Old House'' and ''This Night Has Opened My Eyes'' all showed the Mancunian bard to be now a master of gothic, Northern pathos. The last is quite desperately sad, with its moral upbraiding of an unwanted pregnancy's termination.

As if this wasn't enough, Hatful Of Hollow contains the first appearance of what may be the band's finest moment. ''How Soon Is Now'' encapsulates everything good about the Smiths. It has Morrissey’s faintly mocking sense of teenage rejection ('…so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own. And you go home and you cry and you want to die'), Marr's stunning vibrato guitar chimes and a rhythm section you could set your watch to. Within weeks it was winning Peel's Festive 50.

Hatful Of Hollow was the point where even to doubters began to really believe the hype surrounding the band. It was their true debut in every sense. — (via BBC)

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Label: Rhino Records / Warner 
Format: Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Reissue, 180g
Reissued: 2012 . Original: 1984
Genre: Rock
Style: Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Male Vocals

File under: Indie Rock
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