Why The Smiths are TOTALLY not depressing.

Morrissey's smiling and holding flowers: not depressing

Why do so many people hate on The Smiths because they are ‘depressing’? OK so some of their music isn’t exactly going to be included in Ministry of Sound’s next ‘Ibiza Dance Albums’ compilation, neither will it be featured in the 'Happiest Songs In The World Awards' but does that mean you can’t enjoy listening to The Smiths? If you’re just listening to the music, and not the lyrics, then you could be excused for thinking they are a bit depressing, but if you’re not listening to the lyrics, you’ve probably missed the point of listening to The Smiths in the first place.

I believe there are three kinds of Smiths songs:

1.     The hilarious songs:

Girlfriend in a Coma: funny?

Smiths fans: we just 'get' this

Some of The Smiths’ songs have hilarious lyrics. I’m not talking about listening to your iPod on the train and getting funny looks because you’re laughing so hard songs, I’m talking about funny-witty lyrics. I’m sorry but what’s not funny about ‘Vicar in a Tutu’ and ‘Shelia Take A Bow’. As for ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’, please don’t tell me that song isn’t funny because everything from the lyrics, to the relatively upbeat music, not to mention Morrissey’s brilliant delivery of the lyrics make it just that.

2.     The “I relate to that” songs:

I think the majority of Smiths songs fall into this category. Maybe it’s to do with how much you can relate to Morrissey’s lyrics, so I suppose you could argue that it’s depressing that I relate to them as much as I do. But if you are someone like me who does relate so much to the songs, you think it’s bloody uplifting that you’re not the only person on the planet who’s miserable because you’ve just found a job. Sorry, but it’s true.

3.     The depressing songs:

That's just depressing...

OK so yeah, I’m admitting that there are some depressing Smiths songs. Shock horror. There are some, but they really only make up a small amount of Smiths songs. These include (but are not limited to) ‘Never Had No One Ever’, ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ and ‘I Know It’s Over’. They are genuinely tugging-on-your-broken-heartstrings-whilst-twisting-cut-glass-into-your-miserable-soul songs. I mean ‘I Know It’s Over’, as far as I can decipher is about someone wanting to die because they have just realised that the person they obsessed over never really had anything to do with them and was essentially all just a dream. Think of it as the depressed version of ‘Funny Little Frog’ by Belle and Sebastian.

A final closing point: the BBC ran a poll about songs to listen to when you're depressed and 'I Know It's Over' won. You're hardly going to tell a depressed person to listen to a song that's going to make them more depressed, are you?!