idont know- ha. yude think id hav this down after all the time ispend listenin to these albums [not to mention its my thread].

ive been leanin towards The Queen Is Dead, but ive been listenin to Strangeways, Here We Come- still torn.

ican easily leave it to be between these two as ireally dont feel the other two albums come close, especially when considering Meat Is Murder in its "meant to be" form [i, unlike most Smiths fans, find "How Soon Is Now?" to be highly positive addition to Meat... despite the bands own wishes/objections and ifind it fits better there than with the rest of the Hatful Of Hollow collection]. looking at it fairly, you cant really include "How Soon Is Now?" in your consideration becos it really doesnt fit chronologicaly at all and awards Meat... the same kind of advantage that Hatful..., The World Won't Listen/Louder Than Bombs and really even compilations like Singles and Best I&II enjoy. imean, even if you brought all of those in id still be choosing between The Queen... and Strangeways..., but its still unfair to be pitting one proper album studio session against multiple sessions from different points in their career.

and while their debut is terrific and ifeel underrated by many fans who blow any supposed production short comings way out of proportion, the songs are not as consistently good as their later work. still, the highlights- especially "This Charming Man"- rank right up there with their best work.

thought to activate this thread w/my humble vote, which was a really hard to choice between The Queen Is Death and Strangeways. It's my first Smiths CD album after Best II, which is The Queen Is Death, and after a profound reconsideration, i'm definetely for that this must be their best ever. As chrisarclark frankly and elaborately describes, it contains a great and magical unity, absolutle satisfies and fulfills all the expectations for that moment that a smiths-listener wishes subtly to feel. From the beginning to the ending it is just like a compact melody. Strangeways is my second fav Smiths album, because honestly confessed, no any othe smiths song shocked me in the first listening so profoundly but A Rush & A Push & the Land is Ours. There are numerous moments of mine w/in this album as well. But well, i couldn't stop myself of saying that I'd wished w/out any reason to have How Soon Is Now? in the Queen Is Death. dunno...

Hard to say though The Queen is Dead does the most for me.