If You Like the Smiths, Check Out…

By Abena Oppon

It’s Valentine’s Day, so this month, I thought it would be fun to talk about The Smiths. Morrisey, the most misanthropic of lovers, does a fabulous job at expressing the embarrassment and awkwardness of romantic yearning. His lyrics skew mean and cynical, but are also earnest, exemplifying the complexity and growing pains of youth and young love. I got into The Smiths when the late Queen Elizabeth II died (I mourned the only way I knew how, by listening to The Queen is Dead), and was captured by the way that Morrisey could spin a meaningful tale while also sounding just cool enough. Valentine’s Day can be a day like that, where we feel a certain way about the whole affair  — positive, negative, somewhere painfully in the middle —  but can’t deal with how exposing it is to admit that feeling.

Whatever your romantic status is this Valentine’s Day, I hope you enjoy: 

Car Seat Headrest

One key feature of the music of Seattle band Car Seat Headrest is sincerity. Primary lyricist and founding member Will Toledo’s musical persona has a distinct lack of ego; he wears his heart on his sleeve as he sings about growing older, being in love, and trying to survive in a world that has given him no instruction on how to live. So generally, if you wish the Smiths’ lyrics o were a little less ironic, Car Seat Headrest are right up your alley.

Fans of the song ‘Frankly Mr. Shankly’, on which Morrisey admits his desire for the empty fame he derides, would like ‘Not What I Needed’ from Car Seat Headrest’s 2016 album, Teens of Denial. On this song, which Toledo partially wrote in despair for his friends’ partying habits, he expertly juxtaposes his own snobbery with his shame and anxiety.

‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ by The Smiths has become an anthem of awkward teenage love. For fans of this song, I would recommend ‘Bodys’, which is perhaps the happiest song that Car Seat Headrest has to offer. Like something out of the end of a teen flick, ‘Bodys’ is full of adolescent tropes like having stupid crushes and stealing alcohol for parties. Existing in  a similar environment in a darker light is ‘I Hate Living’, an early (and quite cacophonous - Toledo used to record his songs in his car, hence the band’s name) track on which the feelings of self-consciousness that being at a rowdy party creates. Finally, I would recommend ‘Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales’, a song about guilt, peer pressure, and most importantly, vehicular mishaps. 

Car Seat Headrest’s ‘Cute Thing’, from 2011’s (or the 2018 re-release of) Twin Fantasy, is very similar to ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths Both songs show the singers trying their hardest to appear cool, but mostly ending up sounding awkward. Morrisey parodies materialism on ‘This Charming Man’: he can’t go out because he “hasn’t got a stitch to wear”, but also finds his self-absorption “gruesome”. Toledo wishes for “James Browns’ stage presence”, but ends up apologising for being “so fucking romantic”.

Car Seat Headrest do not usually veer into the sociopolitical as much as The Smiths did, but fans of ‘Meat is Murder’ should check out their 2017 single ‘War is Coming (If You Want It)’. Both are a bit blasé, so are purposefully unsettling when getting their message across, but as aforementioned, Car Seat Headrest’s songs do not veer into the disturbing.

Mitski

Mitski has had a long career making sad songs. Whether they be about falling in love, falling out of love, becoming an adult, trying your best to look after yourself, being lonely and dissatisfied, feeling inadequate to your white peers — they are all pretty sad. 

Songs of Mitski’s like ‘I’m Your Man’, ‘Nobody’, and ‘First Love/Late Spring’ are perfect for fans of the defeatist ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’. All of these songs present a dichotomous way of thinking about life: on ‘I’m Your Man’, Mitski sings as if it is impossible for her and her partner to be equal. On ‘Nobody’ she sings as if she will always be lonely. On ‘First Love/Late Spring’ (my personal favourite of Mitski’s songs!) she sings as if she will die from being in love. Similarly, Morrisey sings that ‘the luck [he’s] had can make a good man turn bad’ so he deserves to have anything he wishes. All these ways of lamenting are slightly ridiculous, but if you’ve ever felt similarly then that is what gives these songs some of their potency.

If you like the lamenting, never-satisfied tone of ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’, then Mitski songs ‘Jobless Monday’, ‘Working For the Knife’, and Class of 2013’ are for you. On these, Mitski sings of being broke, hating her job (being an artist but only in a way that pays the bills), and being terrified of graduating, respectively. If you’ve ever seen Mitski’s viral Tiny Desk Concert, ‘Class of 2013’ is the song she screams into her guitar pickups.

On her 2018 album Be The Cowboy, Mitski is self-preservative, and even shallow, to save face. The satirical ‘Me and My Husband’ and the prideful ‘Lonesome Love’ are standouts here. On the latter, Mitski pretends she doesn’t need the person that the song is addressed to, but only to her own detriment, leading to the wonderful double entendre “nobody butters me up like you do / and nobody fucks me like me”.

Finally, ‘Dan the Dancer’ from 2016’s Puberty 2 is another song about teenage awkwardness and anxiety around sex. This is perfect for fans of ‘Pretty Girls Make Graves’, a song about Morrisey being scared by a girl who wants to have sex with him. This is about the happiest Mitski’s discography gets, so if you wish The Smiths made music that is even more pessimistic, then check out literally any of her songs. 

Drake 

The Certified Lover Boy himself, Drake made a name for himself combining solid bars with honesty, desire and singable melodies. Despite the perceived difference in genre — and the fact that if Morrisey found this column he would probably insult me — there is much similarity to be found between the yearning and dissatisfaction of his music and that of The Smiths.

‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’, is a little denigrating. Half loving, half negging, Drake is head-over-heels for a girl but also is arrogantly certain that she is interested in him too. Many of The Smiths’ songs take this nonchalantly romantic tone, like ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, and ‘Some Girls are Bigger Than Others’.

The first song of Drake’s I would recommend for fans of The Smiths, particularly if the song ‘Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me’ speaks to you, would be ‘Marvin’s Room’. ‘Marvin’s Room’ from Drake’s 2011 album Take Care, has become emblematic of that era of 2010s sad-boy rap. Coupled with a voicemail from an ex-girlfriend and a smooth, gloomy beat, Drake sings with pathetic vitriol about his ex moving on while desperately trying to prove that he has too.

Finally, ‘Passionfruit’ from 2018’s More Life is for fans of The Smiths song ‘I Know It’s Over’. The song has an infectiously laid-back tropical beat and on it, Drake sings about a relationship that is on its way out, but neither he nor his partner wish to acknowledge it. 

Fall Out Boy

If there is one word that might exemplify the music of early Fall Out Boy, it may be the word “catty”. Like Drake’s music, the themes on Fall Out Boy’s tracks are  always bordering on toxicity, but are delivered in a sympathetic enough way by frontman Patrick Stump that you look past it. Bassist and primary lyricist Pete Wentz has a way for mixing metaphors and creating lines that are as clever as they are cutting. 

Both the music of The Smiths and of Fall Out Boy have been heavily influenced by their hometowns, Manchester and Chicago respectively, and their hometown devotion is displayed throughout  their music, although in inverse ways. Fall Out Boy’s songs like ‘Lake Effect Kid’ and ‘Chicago is So Two Years Ago’ highlight the love and pride they have for the place. Conversely, Morrisey does not sing the praises of Manchester, rather choosing to sing about The Moors Murders, on ‘Suffer The Little Children’ and Whalley Grange on ‘Miserable Lie’. In some ways, it is atypical for an emo band such as Fall Out Boy to actually like their hometown. ‘Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy’ is one song by them that exemplifies distaste for home.

Fans of The Smiths’ ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’ would like the self-pitying ‘Reinventing The Wheel to Run Myself Over’. Fans of ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ would like ‘Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner’ — both have the incredibly niche trait of having lyrics that are somewhat of a Freudian slip about choking. 

While songs like ‘Headfirst Slide Out Of Cooperstown on a Bad Bet’, ‘Dance, Dance’, ‘I Slept With Someone From Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me’, all have the acidity of most songs by The Smiths, but fans of  ‘Still Ill’ would like ‘7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)’ by Fall Out Boy. The song is about Pete Wentz’s bipolar disorder, and while like ‘Still Ill’ it is upbeat and incredibly catchy, is also unflinchingly honest.