I didn’t set out to do a track-by-track assessment of The Smiths’ classic 1986 album The Queen is Dead. But over the years, I wrote about it (or the band) so often that I ended up covering every one of its 10 brilliant tracks.

This is one of my all-time favorite albums, a masterpiece of melancholy and mirth.

1. ‘The Queen is Dead‘
2. ‘Frankly, Mr. Shankly‘
3. ‘I Know It’s Over‘
4. ‘Never Had No One Ever‘
5. ‘Cemetry Gates‘
6. ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again‘
7. ‘The Boy with the Thorn in His Side‘
8. ‘Vicar in a Tutu‘
9. ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out‘
10. ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others‘