Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow

There aren't many bands within modern English language pop music that can elicit heartfelt sighs, and much less in today's mainstream. Often it doesn't seem possible that something or someone could come along and be cared about as much as the Smiths' rabid fans still care about them. And it is harder still to believe something could inspire a truer obsession, as there still doesn't seem to be another manner in which to discover this band. But then the Smiths were not really a pop band to begin with, not really of or within the mainstream either.

And Hatful of Hollow is precisely this, 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.