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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_queen_is_dead.png]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:''"It's so lonely on a limb."'']]
3
4''The Queen Is Dead'' is the third studio album by Music/TheSmiths, released on 16 June 1986.
5
6It was intended to be a NewSoundAlbum, with more production value than their previous self-titled effort and ''Meat is Murder'', and featured more humorous lyrics compared to its contemporaries. It was backed by the single "Bigmouth Strikes Again", and other well-known songs are "Cemetry Gates", "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", and the TitleTrack.
7
8The album has sold consistently well, peaking at #2 on the UK Albums Chart; though it did not chart in the United States, it would later go gold down the line.
9
10!!Tracklist:
11
12[[AC:Side One]]
13# "The Queen Is Dead" (6:24)
14# "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" (2:17)
15# "I Know It's Over" (5:48)
16# "Never Had No One Ever" (3:36)
17# "Cemetry Gates" (2:39)
18
19[[AC:Side Two]]
20# "Bigmouth Strikes Again" (3:12)
21# "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" (3:15)
22# "Vicar in a Tutu" (2:21)
23# "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" (4:02)
24# "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" (3:14)
25
26!!Personnel:
27
28* Music/{{Morrissey}} -- vocals
29* Music/JohnnyMarr -- guitar
30* Andy Rourke -- bass
31* Mike Joyce -- drums
32
33----
34!!''Farewell to this land's tropeless marshes...'':
35
36* AlbumTitleDrop: The image caption.
37* AnachronismStew: In "Bigmouth Strikes Again":
38-->''Now I know how Joan of Arc felt''\
39''As the flames rose to her Roman nose''\
40''And her Walkman[=/=]hearing aid began to melt''
41* BrokenRecord: In the ending of "I Know It's Over":
42-->''Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head!''
43* CreditsGag: According to the liner notes, the backing vocals to "Bigmouth Strikes Again" are performed by Ann Coates. In reality, those vocals were Morrissey's own voice sped up, and "Ann Coates" is a pun on Ancoats, a district of Manchester.
44* EpicRocking: The TitleTrack (6:24). "I Know It's Over" is borderline (5:48).
45* FakeOutFadeOut: Inverted with "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", where the song fades out rapidly and then fades slowly back in at the ''beginning'' of the song.
46* IWantSong: "Frankly Mr. Shankly," where the protagonist wants to "go down in celluloid history" and "to live and to love."
47* JustJokingJustification: The aptly titled "Bigmouth Strikes Again."
48-->''Sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking when I said I'd like to smash every tooth in your head...''
49* NewSoundAlbum: This album featured more elaborate production than on their previous albums and singles.
50* NoEnding: "Vicar in a Tutu" just... stops suddenly.
51* PostPunk: While the band always had light shades of this in their music, the opening TitleTrack fully indulges in it, featuring blaring guitars and thudding, cavernous drums that wouldn't be out of place next to the likes of [[Music/JoyDivision "Atrocity Exhibition"]].
52* SelfDeprecation: "The Queen Is Dead" features the lyric "Eh, I know you, and you can't sing/That's nothing, you should hear me play the piano".[[note]]Morrissey later fulfilled his threat on "Death of a Disco Dancer" on later album ''Strangeways, Here We Come''.[[/note]]
53* ShoutOut: The album cover is a modified still from the 1964 French noir film ''L'Insoumis'', released in English-speaking territories as ''The Unvanquished''.
54* SillyLoveSongs: "There is a Light That Never Goes Out", which is about going out with somebody because they don't have a home. However:
55-->''And if a double-decker bus\
56Crashes into us\
57To die by your side\
58Is such a heavenly way to die''
59* TakeThat: The album title and TitleTrack are less-than-subtle jabs at the Royal Family, based in Morrisey's own anti-royalist politics.
60* WholesomeCrossdresser: The subject of the aptly named "Vicar in a Tutu".
61-->''A vicar in a tutu\
62He's not strange\
63He just wants to live life this way''

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