“The Queen Is Dead” by The Smiths turns forty this year, offering a chance to revisit this legendary record, which we love passionately.
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, rarely does the title of a song and its lyrics capture the essence of an album so perfectly. Released on June 16, 1986, The Queen Is Dead, the third and penultimate album by The Smiths, is already celebrating its fortieth anniversary. For forty years, the light has never dimmed, and The Queen Is Dead continues to shine with a thousand lights.
Absolute masterpiece, unparalleled and timeless in the Smiths’ discography, The Queen Is Dead is filled with timeless anthems, beginning with Bigmouth Strikes Again and There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. And what about I Know It’s Over, a visionary song about the end of the Smiths the following year, a heartbreakingly beautiful ballad (“I don’t know where else I can go (over and over…) / I know it’s over/ And it never really began”)? Or the paradoxically brisk Cemetry Gates? Or the swaying Vicar In a Tutu and its improbable lyrics? Not to mention the stately, breathless opener The Queen Is Dead, which gives the album its title. “The existence of the monarchy in England makes no sense; it has never been useful,” Morrissey stated in Les Inrockuptibles in 1986.
The Smiths are defined by Morrissey’s unmistakable voice and singular prose, Johnny Marr’s fearless guitar, and a metronomic rhythm section comprised of the late bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce. The epitome of jangly pop, The Queen Is Dead is an album that can be listened to endlessly without ever growing tiresome, even for a mere moment, despite having been heard hundreds and thousands of times since 1986—much like New Order’s Technique or the Stone Roses’ debut album to stay in Manchester. To add to the myth surrounding The Queen Is Dead, the album cover features a portrait of Alain Delon in the film L’Insoumis by Alain Cavalier. The Queen Is Dead forever.
Editorial originally published in the Music newsletter on June 19, 2026. To subscribe free to the newsletters of the Inrocks, it’s here!
