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Hatful Of Hollow [CD]

The Smiths | Format: Audio CD

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

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THE SMITHS

Contrived by Johnny Marr, The Smiths evolved when Marr unearthed Morrissey and insisted upon a collaboration. The idea was to produce songs which were always instantaneous and listenable whilst also provoking deep thought; emeshing Morrissey’s words with Marr’s music in a sound which, above all, would stand apart without being inaccessible or esoteric. The ... Read more in Amazon's The Smiths Store

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Product details

Audio CD (15 Nov 1993)
Number of Discs: 1
Format: CD
Label: Warner Music
ASIN: B00002496W
Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette | Vinyl | MP3 Download

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,195 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Song Title Time Price

1. William, It Was Really Nothing (2011 Remastered Version) 2:11 �0.89 Buy MP3

2. What Difference Does It Make? (John Peel Session 5/18/83) 3:12 �0.89 Buy MP3

3. These Things Take Time (David Jensen Session 6/26/83) 2:34 �0.89 Buy MP3

4. This Charming Man (John Peel Session 9/14/83) 2:43 �0.89 Buy MP3

5. How Soon Is Now? (2011 Remastered Version) 6:48 �0.89 Buy MP3

6. Handsome Devil (John Peel Session 5/18/83) 2:44 �0.89 Buy MP3

7. Hand In Glove (2011 Remastered Version) 3:15 �0.89 Buy MP3

8. Still Ill (John Peel Session 9/14/83) 3:35 �0.89 Buy MP3

9. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (2011 Remastered Version) 3:35 �0.89 Buy MP3

10. This Night Has Opened My Eyes (2011 Remastered Version) 3:41 �0.89 Buy MP3

11. You've Got Everything Now (David Jensen Session 6/26/83) 4:14 �0.89 Buy MP3

12. Accept Yourself (David Jensen Session 8/25/83) 4:03 �0.89 Buy MP3

13. Girl Afraid (2011 Remastered Version) 2:46 �0.89 Buy MP3

14. Back To The Old House (John Peel Session 9/14/83) 3:05 �0.89 Buy MP3

15. Reel Around The Fountain (John Peel Session 5/18/83) 5:50 �0.89 Buy MP3

16. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (2011 Remastered Version) 1:52 �0.89 Buy MP3

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

Hatful Of Hollow presents the raw and yearning performances of the early Smiths at their best, with Morrissey singing "'the sun shines out of our behinds" on the iconic "Hand In Glove", his tongue firmly in his cheek. For many Smiths devotees, this is the band's alternative debut album, containing vital Smiths recordings like the John Porter produced "How Soon is Now?". Other less well-known delights include a beautifully mordant acoustic rendition of "Back to the Old House" and the kitchen sink melancholy of "This Night Has Opened My Eyes". Hatful Of Hollow is a sixteen track collection that is taken in the main from BBC Radio 1's cutting edge John Peel and David Jensen evening shows in 1984. Like The Beatles at The BBC, The Smiths radio sessions sound both timeless and epoch defining, and there is no better introduction to the band's beguiling talent than on Hatful Of Hollow. --James Littlewood

Review

Already the darlings of the evening tastemakers at Radio 1 and the music press, Morrissey and Marr's Smiths had, by 1984, yet to make a satisfying entry in the album stakes. Their eponymous debut had some fine songs, but the production had left them sounding rather tinny and un-finished. Luckily their prodigious work-rate and sensible decision to use Radio 1 sessions as substitute studio/rehearsal time meant that they were soon perfecting their recorded sound as well as honing their formidable writing skills. Equally luckily someone at Rough Trade noticed, and a deal was struck to release these sessions along with some non-album A and B sides as Hatful Of Hollow. In one fell swoop the mistakes of the previous 6 months were forgotten.

Hatful…'s versions of the debut’s material, including ''Hand In Glove'', ''Reel Around The Fountain'' and ''What Difference Does It Make'', suddenly come alive in this quick and dirty environment – more closely resembling the live favourites that had won them acclaim in the first place. But it was the new material that really shone here. Singles ''William It Was Really Nothing'' and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'' revealed giant steps in both Morrissey's deadpan witticisms and Marr's way with a punchy hook, while ''Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want'', ''Back To The Old House'' and ''This Night Has Opened My Eyes'' all showed the Mancunian bard to be now a master of gothic, Northern pathos. The last is quite desperately sad, with its moral upbraiding of an unwanted pregnancy's termination.

As if this wasn't enough, Hatful… contains the first appearance of what may be the band's finest moment. ''How Soon Is Now'' encapsulates everything good about the Smiths. It has Morrissey’s faintly mocking sense of teenage rejection ('…so you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own. And you go home and you cry and you want to die'), Marr's stunning vibrato guitar chimes and a rhythm section you could set your watch to. Within weeks it was winning Peel's Festive 50.

Hatful Of Hollow was the point where even to doubters began to really believe the hype surrounding the band. It was their true debut in every sense… --Chris Jones

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the real smiths 16 April 2010

By P. Frizelle

Format:Audio CD

Already the darlings of the late great John Peel and the music press, Morrissey and Marr's Smiths had, by 1984, yet to make a satisfying entry in the album stakes. Their eponymous debut had some fine songs, but the production had left them sounding un-finished. Luckily their prodigious work-rate and sensible decision to use Radio 1 sessions as substitute studio/rehearsal time meant that they were soon perfecting their recorded sound as well as honing their formidable writing skills. A deal was struck to release these sessions along with some non-album A and B sides as Hatful Of Hollow. Hatful...'s versions of the debut's material, including ''Hand In Glove'', ''Reel Around The Fountain'' and ''What Difference Does It Make'', suddenly come alive in this quick and dirty environment, more closely resembling the live favourites that had won them acclaim in the first place. But it was the new material that really shone here in both Morrissey's deadpan witticisms and Marr's way with a punchy hook, mastering the gothic, Northern pathos. It has Morrissey's faintly mocking sense of teenage rejection offset by Marr's stunning vibrato guitar chimes and a rhythm section you could set your watch to. It was their true debut in every sense. This is the prime dose of Smiths, these versions of old tried and tested songs have a freshness about them with a inexplicable raw edge that makes them sound about a hundred times better than they did on the debut. There aren't many bands within modern English language pop music that can elicit versatile heartfelt sighs.

Hatful of Hollow captures precisely 16 shots of adolescent displeasure, humour, frustration, wishful thinking, and frankly, fixation; sounding in turns like slaps, punches and long, drawn out sighs.... It is a band summing up beautifully what it means to be growing up awkwardly and feeling strange; wanting love and yet still not fully believing in it. Hatful of Hollow truly is a great record. The Smiths had an impressive catalogue in their regrettably short life, and the fact that they were able to release such an exceptional compilation after nothing more than one album to their name is a testament to their early musical spark and vigour. Hatful of Hollow was released in late 1984 to tide the gap between their eponymous debut's release earlier in the year and their eagerly anticipated sophomore studio album, Meat is Murder. Hollow

The Smiths will of course always be derided as miserabilists. But it's the humour and beauty involved that those criticisms always seem to miss or worse yet ignore. They somehow managed to interoperate with pinpoint my own personal pangs and social frustrations and suffering with as much blunt accuracy and humour. This topics share the same shattered and lonely individualism, a wish for self-centeredness that is both juvenile and laughable over a collection of subtle overlapping guitars of such beauty and timelessness. This is why the Manchester quartet will always be important, as through the combination of Morrissey's wondrous lyrics and Johnny Marr's aching guitar melanges, they could instantly make you feel nostalgic, aching as it were for something,

This though the release is not a real album but a collection of at the time unreleased singles, their mostly fantastic b-sides and much of their first album redone for the John Peel sessions. And that it could hold up and some say surpasses their studio work is remarkable, though it illustrates how strong and orginal band they were, and how they were improving. But aside from these revisited tunes, what makes this collection great is the sheer incredible breadth of it, as not once among the entire set does the quality, focus, or energy dip, this though many mellower songs abound.
The Smiths were a band always at their best when playing to their contrasts; Morrissey's Gladiolas to Marr's leather jacket, sexual references among declarations of celibacy, poppy and light sounds while lifting eruditely from literature, deadly serious yet mocking themselves and the world around. The Smiths are a band worshipped across the globe by legions of spotty awkward angsty ridden teenage timid and social rejects, and despised by most everybody else. The reasons are entirely due to lead singer Morissey's persona. The "oh, the agonies of life!" whining of this miserable, hypersensitive, vegetarian, celibate moppet can certainly put you off the band for good, but you really shouldn't. Morrissey has a supreme talent of hitting on both the male and female perspectives The other reason to pay attention to the Smiths is that they contained possibly the best English guitarist of their generation, Johnny Marr. Morrissey's sexual ambiguousness, both in his media personality and in his lyrics, allowed the listener to mould the song to their own liking and interpret it however they saw fit. Some saw "Reel Around the Fountain" as nothing more than an harmless love song, others saw it as a bestial telling of paedophilia. Some listeners interpreted "These Things Take Time" as an innocent retelling of a friendly drunken afternoon - others interpreted as a ghastly abomination detailing unrequited homosexual love.

But Morrissey's writing talents and vocal contributions alone would not make this record a success. Instead, guitarist Johnny Marr took firm hold of the writing helms and made the Smiths listenable. Influenced heavily by Keith Richards (Rolling Stones), Ray Davies (the Kinks) Mick Ronson (David Bowie), Johnny Marr had an intense understanding of how to effectively compose guitar-based pop music. His jangling, 60s-harking music, while on paper it may not have looked a fitting accompaniment to Morrissey's whiny livejournal ramblings, served in fact as a perfect foil. Morrissey and Marr's frictional relationship lead to some of the best pop songs put to record. The relationship is odd but reassuringly fitting. We have the proof since neither artist has really achieved much since there break up. The Queen is Dead is often regarded as the pinnacle of the Smiths music, and as one the cornerstones of music history. But Hatful of Hollow, despite being a compilation, serves as a more accurate portrayal of the untempered brilliance of the Smiths.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A must for any fan of the 1980's guitar pop phenomenon. 30 Jun 2005

By "stiggabyrne"

Format:Audio CD

A compilation of unreleased and BBC tracks, 1984's 'Hatful of Hollow' is a 'must-have' for fans of The Smiths and of high-quality music generally. On listening to the album it is clear that unlike other more accomplished Smiths' albums such as 'The Queen is Dead,' 'Hatful of Hollow'is merely a collage of lesser known tracks and alternative versions of classic tunes such as 'This Charming Man'. However this is by no means a negative interpretation. The album is attributed with a distinctively raw sound that many other Smith's albums lack, particularly noticeable in the relantless consistency of Marr's guitar in tracks such as 'These Things Take Time,' 'Handsome Devil' and ' Accept Yourself.'
Personally, this will always be my favourite Smith's album for the simple reason that it was the album that really introduced me to their music. It showcases a wide range of their qualities in that it is a brash lively album but ends on a sombre and sorrowful note with tracks like 'This Night Has Opened My Eyes,' 'Back To The Old House,' and the agonisingly short 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want.'
The inclusion of some of the bands most celebrated tracks, 'How Soon Is Now?' 'This Charming Man' and 'William It Was Really Nothing,' ensures that this album is a must for any fan of the 1980's guitar pop phenomenon that were The Smiths.

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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The very best introduction to the Smiths... 3 July 2004

By Jonathan James Romley

Format:Audio CD

Many people regard the Smith's studio albums (with the exception of the Queen is Dead) as patchy affairs, skirting dangerously between absolute classics and downright filler. Though, that is an opinion alien to me (I think the first Smiths' album, along with Strangeways Here We Come, are two of the greatest records of the 80's), I can see how such a viewpoint could arise, especially when you measure the success of something like Meat is Murder, alongside the undeniable genius of this.

Hatful of Hollow surfaced in 1984 and would elaborate on the style and sonic template developed by the Smiths on their self-titled debut. The range of styles and ideas, both musically and lyrically, is unparalleled here, with the group culling tracks from their first album, from demos and b-sides, and from various radio sessions, to create a collection that, along with the similar/later compilation, The World Won't Listen, represents the very best introduction to the music of the Smiths. The fact that the band had so much great material just laying around at such an early stage of their career, led John Mulvey of the NME to opine, "there's a sense that the band are rolling out of bed and writing a great song a day"... and it's true! You can't imagine modern-day bands like Coldplay or Keane having so much material left over from their first albums, to the extent that they could easily release a compilation months before starting work on their second...

It is, of course, a testament to the strong songwriting partnership of Morrissey and Marr during this era of fruitful creativity... with Marr providing those bouncing, jangly rhythms, whilst Morrissey, in his words, launched his diary to music....

Hatful of Hollow remains one of the very best Smiths' releases and acts as a great introduction to one of the best bands of all time. For a more comprehensive listen, get this alongside The World Won't Listen and immerse yourself in the joys of songs like You've Got Everything Now, William- It Was Really Nothing, This Night Has Opened My Eyes and Back to the Old House, before progressing to the wonders of The Smiths, Meat is Murder, The Queen is Dead and Strangeways- Here We Come. Read more ›

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life-changing 16 Sep 2007

By J. Roberts

Format:Audio CD

Some albums pass the time, some provide pleasant background noise at dinner parties, but only an elite few bands/albums have the potential to change lives, and this is one of them.

'Hatful Of Hollow', amongst other Smiths releases, must have changed thousands, if not millions of lives all over the world, including this reviewer's. From the moment Morrissey's vocals kicked in during the opening bars of 'William It Was Really Nothing', I knew that this band would change my life, and that it would be a long time indeed before I heard anything as authentic and charismatic as this.

It was the meeting of two geniuses: Morrissey and Marr. Marr was a young virtuoso of guitar, Morrissey was a young writer with an almost scholarly passion for authenticity and creativity. The result was unique, influential beyond measure. Ode to sexuality 'What Difference Does it Make' boasts vocals, lyrics, guitar and a rhythm section most bands would weep over, whilst 'These Things Take Time' ponders more matters of the heart, and the groin, in Morrissey's trademark knowingly salacious way. The album then goes from excellent to jaw-dropping with tracks four and five. Four being 'This Charming Man', which brought the Smiths to the masses and simultaneously revealed Morrissey's distinctive shirt, beads and gladioli garb. Then track five, the song which has probably changed more lives than any other, that flawless anthem of disaffection 'How Soon Is Now?' In this, Morrissey speaks directly to anyone who ever felt lonely, or alienated, or a lack of affinity with their fellow human beings, whilst also, in a stunningly articulate way, commenting on the hollow, vapid, soulless quality of club culture and the lack of romantic opportunities it provides to anyone with a shred of individuality....

'Handsome Devil' provides yet more sexually-charged moments as Morrissey proclaims: 'I know what hands are for, and I'd like to help myself!" 'Hand In Glove', meanwhile, provides yet another moment of perfectly sculpted guitar pop from the guitar pop masters of that era, whilst 'Still Ill' and 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' brilliantly explore the intoxicating fusion of introspection and black humour that has always been one of Morrissey's strongest qualities.

Exploration of Kitchen Sink set-pieces have always been yet another of Morrissey's many lyrical talents, explored to great effect on the likes of 'This Night Has Opened My Eyes', 'Accept Yourself', and 'Girl Afraid', all of which aptly show Morrissey's ability to describe real life in a way which is interesting and engaging to the listener.

The final three songs, 'Back To The Old House', 'Reel Around The Fountain' and 'Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want' are all musically beautiful, whilst lyrically touching and provocative in turn. The more I listen to 'Back To The Old House', the more I appreciate it's beauty, and the poignancy of Marr's arrangement, which rarely fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Listening to this album reminds me that there is virtually nothing around nowadays which is in any way comparable, nothing which is given any attention anyway. Furthermore, I dont even think most lyricists nowadays even attempt to push themselves as far as Morrissey did, consuming art en masse in an attempt to become a better writer. The lyricists of the twenty-first century do not seem to realise that to be a unique artist, one must be a rabid consumer of art. Perhaps it doesn't matter to them, which just makes Morrissey even more of an example. He's almost lost in this dire age of mediocrity, a discarded genius who has almost been pulled into the sea of dullness by the business which seems to breed dullards. There should never be a day goes by, however, that Morrissey and Marr both should not look back on this album and swell with pride. Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Smiths are great

No matter what album you buy of this band, they are all great. Enjoy the texts, the rythms, the voice of Morrissey, ...

Published 12 days ago by Pierre Brewee

5.0 out of 5 stars "This 'Album' Has Opened My Eyes", (Newbies/Doubters look this way...

For years and years (and years and years) i've kept The Smiths at arms length, mainly due to my inability to get past Morrisseys "Dour depressing lyrics and his gladioli flowers... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Mr Ogden

5.0 out of 5 stars the best smiths album altime

great album ive worn out many a vinal and cds of this one and cant live with out top album with great tunes

Published 2 months ago by mr c

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best, if not the best Smiths album

Although not regarded as an official Smiths album due to it being a collection of BBC sessions and reworked versions of earlier songs it is a classic and arguably the best Smiths... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Tim Addison

5.0 out of 5 stars Up There With The Studio Albums

I have never seen the point of singles. You get only three songs and have to change discs every ten minutes. Read more

Published 11 months ago by JJKelsall

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Slap Me On The Patio... I'll Take it - NOW!'

'Hatful Of Hollow' is one of the most raw albums of all time. Morrissey's voice, Johnny Marr's guitars, a low budget production and some of the most brilliant, witty, sensitive and... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Antony May

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant collection

I find it hard to be objective about this record, but I will try. I bought this as a 23-year old in 1984, just at the point when I fell in love for the first time, and so this... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Stephen Hudson

5.0 out of 5 stars smiths - hatful of hollow

this CD album is the remastered version of the 1984 album of mishmash tracks culled from all over the place.

William got me started on this band. Read more

Published 14 months ago by a.m.hardwick

5.0 out of 5 stars Nicky Wire Says...

In a feature for the 11 February 2012 edition of the NME the acerbic Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire was quizzed on his favourite album. Read more

Published 16 months ago by S. Bailey

5.0 out of 5 stars the best record ever made

The grestest record by the greatest band ever. You can't be a good person if you don't like The Smiths.

Published 21 months ago by F. Junior

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