The Smiths "The Queen Is Dead" ROUGH 96 UK 1st A1/B1 EMI g/fold + inner 1986

	£		29
	$		38

The Smiths ? "The Queen Is Dead"  Rough Trade ?ROUGH 96  UK 1st press (EMI) Vinyl, LP, released in a gate-fold cover and housed in a printed inner sleeve.
The vinyl looks to have been lightly played and is in great shape. It played through beautifully on my elderly stereo - no hop, click or stick. The vinyl is housed in a printed inner sleeve, which shows minimal signs of use and which is in great condition, no rips or writing. The gate-fold sleeve shows signs of wear along the top and to the rear, but it is intact, again, no rips or writing. The spine is intact and legible. Matrix / Runout  Side 1 : ROUGH 96 A-1U-1-1- FEAR OF MANCHESTER Matrix / Runout  Side 2 : ROUGH 96 B-1U-1-1- THEM WAS ROTTEN DAYS
"The Queen Is Dead" is the Smiths' third studio album, released on 16 June 1986 in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records and in the United States on 23 June 1986 through Sire Records.
The album spent twenty-two weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 2. It also reached No. 70 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and was certified Gold by the RIAA in late 1990. It has sold consistently well ever since and has received unanimous critical acclaim, with NME listing it as the greatest album of all time in 2013.
The album was produced by Morrissey and Marr, working predominantly with engineer Stephen Street, who had engineered the band's 1985 album, "Meat Is Murder". Street recalled: "Morrissey, Johnny and I had a really good working relationship – we were all roughly the same age and into the same kind of things, so everyone felt quite relaxed in the studio".
"The Queen Is Dead" finally emerged in June 1986, and was previewed by the May single release of "Bigmouth Strikes Again", the only single taken from the album. Many encouraged the band to release "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" as a single, but Johnny Marr is said to have wanted an explosive, searing single, along the lines of the Rolling Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", to announce that the Smiths had returned from hiatus. It did not fare as well as expected, stalling at number 26 on the British charts.
The album cover, designed by Morrissey, features Alain Delon from the 1964 film 'L'Insoumis'.
"The Queen Is Dead" received critical acclaim, and is considered to be a defining album of the 1980s, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. In a contemporaneous review of the album, Mark Coleman of Rolling Stone remarked on Morrissey's sense of humour and singled out the singer's performance on "Cemetry Gates" as a highlight, concluding that "like it or not, this guy's going to be around for a while." Writing in pop magazine Smash Hits, Tom Hibbert gave a favourable review, stating that "the guitars are great, some of the words are marvellous, others like scratchings on a Fifth Form desk", as well as describing Morrissey as "half genius half buffoon". Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote that despite his dislike of the Smiths' previous albums, he held an "instant attraction" to "The Queen Is Dead", where he found that "Morrissey wears his wit on his sleeve, dishing the queen like Johnny Rotten never did and kissing off a day-job boss who's no Mr. Sellack", which "makes it easier to go along on his moonier escapades".
Pitchfork listed "The Queen Is Dead" as sixth best album of the 1980s. In 2003, "The Queen Is Dead" was ranked number 216 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2006, it was named the second greatest British album of all time by the NME. In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at number three in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s". UK-based magazine Clash added "The Queen Is Dead" to its "Classic Album Hall of Fame" in its June 2011 issue, saying it "is an album to lose yourself in; it has depth, focus and some great tunes. It's easy to see why the album is held in such high esteem by Smiths fanatics and why, a decade later, it became a key influence for all things Britpop." In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 16 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s" and said: "There may never again be an indie-rock album as good as The Queen Is Dead". In 2013, "The Queen Is Dead" was ranked the greatest record of all time on the NME's Greatest Albums of All Time list. At Rolling Stone, Gavin Edwards retrospectively viewed the album as "one of the funniest rock albums ever", noting that Morrissey had "learned to express his self-loathing through mockery" while Johnny Marr "matched his verbal excess with witty, supple music", and concluded, "If the queen's reaction to Morrissey was 'We are not amused,' then she was the only one."