What's their appeal?

>>74802503
>usually depressing, self loathing lyrics are laughed at yet
nah, nu-males and women eat that shit up and both are the primary fanbase of the smiths

>>74802503
Moz's lyrics are usually said with a wink and a nudge.

>>74802503
>usually depressing, self loathing lyrics
That's the point, they're lyrics were more real than other plastic 80's bands like Duran Duran and FGTH

Musically, they were the best of the best in terms of jangly guitar pop, to the point where they are to a large extent the codifiers of that type of sound. At the same time, they took influences from vastly different genres and were also prone to innovate, especially in terms of guitar sounds (listen to "Shoplifters of the World Unite" or "How Soon is Now?", the latter especially is basically Shoegaze ten years before Shoegaze). Also, they had a monster rhythm section that is often overlooked and that had no right to rock as hard as it did (listen to some live recordings for that).

As for the lyrics, Morrissey's, although superficially mopey, are just really clever and well-written, especially when you realize that they often make fun of going through life with a genuine self-loathing and melodramatic attitude (like in "Heaven knows I'm Miserable now", where he paints running away from the girl that flirts with him as the only reasonable course of action or in the first verse of "Still Ill", where he makes fun of people who are entitled and believe that they should be given much more than what they actually deserve).
Furthermore, on the occasions where his lyrics are genuinely depressed, he puts them in a way that doesn't make them sound like "look at me how sad and miserable I am, the entire world is against me", but touch upon topics broad enough to be relatable to everyone (like for example on "How Soon is Now?").

>>74803027
and then there's "never had no one ever"
but that's so over the top it can't be serious, right?

they were the greatest band in the world in their prime

>>74803115
Well, some songs are better than others, no doubt about that, but judging the Smiths solely based on "Never had no one ever" would be doin oneself a huge disservice, wouldn't it?

Cause moz has a voice of an angel as well as his writing being extremely engaging and catchy.

>>74803210
No becuase that song is amazing

>>74803027
I think if there's one song that really captures what The Smiths is all about it's The Queen Is Dead. Joyce and Rourke go hard in that song, Marr's doing very great work just in general and the song has more than just a handful of interesting moments in terms of instrumentation; but the highlight here are Morrisey's lyrics where they're very clearly humourous, even if at times they can get quite silly. Just about every verse has some sort of satirical gag.

If you think they sound like any other jangly 80s pop outfit please tell me the others

>>74804053
Orange Juice
Aztec Camera
Prefab Sprout

>>74802503
>jangly
Have you ever actually listened to them? Does music just sound like one big mush of sound in your head? Johnny Marr's guitar is anything but jangly and Andy Rourke is a seriously underrated bassist.

Also, there's very little "self-loathing" in Morrisey's lyrics if you actually have functioning brain cells.