TS: The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead" Vs. Pulp's "Different Class"

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Very tough one. Different Class" for me. I fucking l.o.v.e. "Common People" and "Live Bed Show."

But The Queen Is Dead/i> is great, too.

― Grand (grand), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

Not at all tough. "Different Class" all the way. None of The Smiths were ever close to Jarvis Cocker's abilities as a pop composer.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think I've ever finished Different Class in one sitting. However, I've listened to The Queen is Dead front to back at least 50 times.

The Smiths winz.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

You people are on crack. "The Queen Is Dead" and The Smiths are in such a league of their own compared to Pulp. If it weren't for The Smiths, Pulp would have been stuck making bedsit industrial-tinged rock crap (I mean have you really listened those Fire years?). Jarvis isn't fit to water Moz's gladiolias in the latter's prime. Of course, solo era-Mozzer isn't fit to top off Jarvis' scotch and soda around the time of "Different Class" either.

― hector savage, Saturday, 27 May 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

All this just makes me think of is who or what group is the mid-this decade equivalent is for the UK -- and absolutely nobody of any worth combined with that level of widespread popularity comes to mind, things are generally that dispiriting.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

Well, Arctic Monkeys obviously...

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

also...

Hector OTM
Geir OTC

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:12 (nineteen years ago)

Well, Arctic Monkeys obviously...

SILENCE.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:24 (nineteen years ago)

The Sugarbabes, I reckon.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

oops forgot something

/sarcasm

;)

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:26 (nineteen years ago)

I knew that, silly person. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:28 (nineteen years ago)

In all seriousness, the closest equivalent I can think of is probably The Streets.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

(ie: hugely popular and critically acclaimed, but largely thanks to the lyrics rather than the music)

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)

No, Coldplay.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

No, Coldplay are U2 or Oasis.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

Franz Ferdinand will be closest once they get three albums out.

I'll take Pulp Different Class over Queen Is Dead Smiths. Too many slow ones on QID, and nothing approaching the majesty of Common People.

Louder Than Bombs vs. Different Class... now that's a contest.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

Franz Ferdinand aren't very inspiring lyrically.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, neither the Streets nor Franz Ferdinand strike me as filling that particular bill, though I can see why the Streets were suggested.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

Slow ones are fine when they fit & sustain the mood of the album to utter perfection.

Different Class is fine but it's way, way too fitful & scrappy in quality and higgledy-piggledy a tracklist to work well enough to beat possibly The Smiths finest 45 minutes.

I-Spy still kills though.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:46 (nineteen years ago)

I love how "I Spy" was used on the soundtrack to the first Mission Impossible movie. Because it totally fits. Uh...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

Is is something to do with the domination of (psuedo) "indie" that there isn't really a band now who can take up that *cough* alternative fringe for the masses position? All slots are taken or something?

Maybe The Streets very "ordinary guy" schtick is actually the required response to this New Labour, post-"Cool Brittania" era, in a way that is a bit more honest & working-class-intelligent* than =O=asis?

*the main thing that makes Pulp & The Smiths noteworthy for me, and the Arctic's not, who seem more about reacting & playing up to stereotypes than defying them?

(this needs work I know)

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

I always feel like Mike Skinner is trying to say something about society, whereas the AM's are just, even when being fairly literate or humourous, simply reflecting on their audience.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 27 May 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe it's a generational related choice but i'll go with Different Class and it's not really a hard pick for me.

― elgolfo (elgolfo), Sunday, 28 May 2006 02:58 (nineteen years ago)

this is where i say again that, except for "common people," pulp does absolutely nothing for me. so my votes goes for the queen is dead.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 28 May 2006 08:41 (nineteen years ago)

music aside, though, i would much rather hang w/ jarvis cocker than morrissey.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 28 May 2006 08:42 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe it's a generational related choice but i'll go with Different Class

Yeah, I bought Different Class when I was 15 or 16 and it like, meant something to me and all that teenage crap whereas The Queen Is Dead is something I picked up a couple of years ago and can appreciate as a great album etc. but it would be revisionist history for me to say it had a bigger impact on me than DC, even if it might technically be the better album, blah blah blah.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Sunday, 28 May 2006 09:06 (nineteen years ago)

No, Coldplay are U2 or Oasis.

I can buy that. Except Coldplay are U2 or Oasis and Toto or Dave Matthews Band in one and the same band.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:16 (nineteen years ago)

Plus they are Elvis Costello and Boston in one and the same band in addition.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:24 (nineteen years ago)

I think I heard both these records close enough (3-4 years? maybe one as a late teen, one in Uni) together to say... for me The Smiths is just the better album. Then again I never really fell for Pulp as a band that meant something though I knew people who did get that, maybe I already burned out the chance of that happening again so soon on The Smiths.

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

music aside, though, i would much rather hang w/ jarvis cocker than morrissey.

-- Eisbär

me too

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 28 May 2006 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

The Queen Is Dead isn't my favorite Smiths album, but I think it's stronger than Different Class, which I've never listened all the way through in a different setting. Love maybe half the songs, though.

And I agree with whomever said that Franz Ferdinand is the pick for this mid-decade. Their lyrics aren't as strong as Jarvis's, but then Jarvis's weren't really as strong as Morrissey's either. (Pulp uses a broader array of musical tools than did the Smiths, though. Or that's my feeling. It's what makes them more than a poor man's the Smiths.)

― Atnevon (Atnevon), Sunday, 28 May 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

Franz Ferdinand have proved consistence, something which Arctic Monkeys haven't had the chance to do yet.

Plus I find that FF have better songs than Arctic Monkeys or Bloc Party anyway.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

music aside, though, i would much rather hang w/ jarvis cocker than morrissey.

Yeah, this is a no-brainer.

Neither album is my fave by its respective band, but I didn't get into the Smiths until after they split up, whereas I was big into Pulp when they blew up and therefore they "meant more" to me. I was listening to a bunch of Pulp several weeks ago and I now think that "Different Class" has aged less than either "His N Hers" or "This Is Hardcore". As recently as two or three years ago, I never would have believed that to be the case.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

Pulp and Suede used to be my least favourite of the four big Britpop bands. However, "Different Class" and "Suede" are both growers, and narrowing the gap up to "The Great Escape", "Parklife" and "Morning Glory".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 28 May 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

tho QID is a personal favorite, i agree with whoever said that nothing on it compares to "Common People".

― JD from CDepot, Sunday, 28 May 2006 22:23 (nineteen years ago)

music aside, though, i would much rather hang w/ jarvis cocker than morrissey.

I have to say that although Jarvis looks on the outside to be a bit of a laugh, he has has quite a few issues himself with depression, etc... I reckon Moz would be OK if you didn't offer him a bacon sandwich or asked him about his sex life!

Back to the question though - Queen is Dead!!! Now if it was between His and Hers, that may have been a tougher one to answer!

― Fiona Moorcroft (Fiona*), Monday, 5 June 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

today i'm realising after foolishly not listening to it for a year or so, Different Class is probably my favourite album of all time. it is perfect in every single way.

― reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Monday, 2 May 2011 17:39 (fourteen years ago)

THE QUEEN IS DEAD by a light year.

― my beautiful dark twisted fennessey (rennavate), Monday, 2 May 2011 18:29 (fourteen years ago)

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