When the Smiths bursted into the bland climate of the early-eighties U.K. pop scene, their refreshing minimalism, political outspokenness and smart, arty jangling guitar sound received a virtual salivating response from the British music press. They unleashed singles like a machine gun spewing bullets at the charts, for two years hammering away with the infectious, thought-povoking, well-crafted pop songs, before finally unveiling a full-length record, The Smiths. By all standards it was quite different from the synthesized overproduced pop of British new wave chart-toppers, raw and stripped-down to the vivacious arrangement of Mike Joyce's assertive drumming, Andy Rourke's dynamic, melodic basslines, Jonny Marr's glistening, carefree guitar riffs and Morrisey's impassioned, croonings. The songs are spontaneous and explosive, the astounding results of years listening to late 70's punk records, the avid reading of Oscar Wilde and other imagist poets and frantic bursts of youthful creativity. "Still Ill" and "What Difference Does it Make" are intense and energetic, flaunting punk beats, gritty, yet gleaming guitar work and