Strangeways, Here We Come is an admirable attempt by The Smiths to explore new sonic territory, understandably so with the limited structure and format of the jangle pop genre. Here, the jangle is all but gone.

Without a doubt, the highlight of Strangeways, Here We Come is the synthesized string arrangements by Johnny Marr. They were used very tenderly and effectively on The Queen Is Dead, but here almost all of the songs are built around them. For that reason, Strangeways is certainly The Smiths’s most pompous work. Strangeways is somewhat too heavy on slow ballad material that make it feel longer than it actually is, despite being The Smiths’s shortest album. There are a small number of missteps that come naturally with exploring new territory, but if you can look past the jarring, stylistic shift, you’ll realize The Smiths still haven’t abandoned the songwriting smarts that made their previous albums so tightknit.