A review by nabisteph
A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths by Tony Fletcher

4.0

Great read if you're a Smiths fan, obviously. The author really gives you a comprehensive view of the band, especially the individual members' origins, including family history and even a history of Manchester itself. I was held in thrall throughout, not having been aware of all the particular details of how they came together and what broke them apart fairly early in their careers. I found myself reaching for my phone a lot to listen to a particular song as it was painstakingly described and analyzed, and it gave me a fresh perspective on the tunes I've come to know and love so much. Being a music layman, sometimes all the technical talk about how a particular effect was achieved on a certain song kind of went over my head, but it was interesting overall. The ending was a bit abrupt, though, and I didn't realize it was coming because I thought there were still quite a lot of pages left but it was all the footnotes, bibliography, acknowledgements, etc. I guess in that regard the ending of the book emulated the ending of the band.