The Smiths – Rank (2xLP)

The Smiths' Rank is the group's only official live album, originally released in 1988 but drawn from a show at Kilburn's National Ballroom on October 23, 1986, just months before the band split. That timing matters: this is The Smiths onstage near the end, with the set assembled by Morrissey from a BBC-recorded performance rather than presented complete. Even in that edited form, it works as a sharp document of how a band so often praised for studio precision could hit with real force in a room.

The album catches the 1986 touring line-up in a more muscular mood, with Johnny Marr's guitar lines pushing hard through songs that already felt bigger than indie-pop convention allowed. The Queen Is Dead arrives with real charge, I Know It's Over turns especially stark and exposed, and Marr's instrumental The Draize Train gets a valuable spotlight. The selection famously leaves out several songs from the night, which gives Rank a slightly selective, curated feel, but also a strong pace.

As a piece of Smiths history, Rank does more than fill a gap in the catalogue. It preserves the band's stage chemistry, Morrissey's personality between songs, and the sense that by late 1986 The Smiths could sound tougher, looser and more expansive live without losing the emotional tension that made their records linger.

Reviews

• these 14 songs capture the Smiths performing in full-on rock-star mode. - AllMusic.com

Genre: Pop & Rock