The Smiths Reunite After 23 Years for New Album

LONDON, UK (GlossyNews) — Alternative music pioneers Morrissey and Johnny Marr, co-founders of The Smiths, have announced the long-awaited reunion of the band.

The Smiths were an English rock group formed in Manchester in 1982, driven by the songwriting partnership of Steven Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar). Critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. The Smiths enjoyed limited commercial success outside the United Kingdom while they were still together, but have since developed a strong cult following. Their rabid fan base is testament to the allure of Morrissey’s mordant, tongue-in-check humor and Marr’s 60s-influenced guitar arrangements, especially considering that the group never released a single that charted higher than number 10 in their home country. The group disbanded in 1987 amid disagreements.

Despite years of tearful and angst-laden appeals from manic fans, Morrissey and Marr turned down several proposals to reunite and play. In 2006, after organizers of the Coachella Music Festival offered The Smiths $5 million to perform, Morrissey famously told British entertainment industry magazine Uncut that he would “rather eat [his] own testicles than re-form The Smiths, and that’s saying something for a vegetarian.”

Based on the news today, it would seem that Morrissey no longer sees meat as murder and is preparing to feast on his manhood. Johnny Marr and Steven Morrissey announced that The Smiths have reached an understanding and will begin recording a new album in studio. The working title is Making Fat Girls Cry. The songwriting duo assure fans that the forthcoming record will also wring sobs from sexually confused young men and ironic hipsters. Proposed tracks include titles such as “Bastard Angels,” “Biscuit Massacre and Nosebleed Suicide,” “Bollocks – Food of the Gods,” “Blair Bitch Project,” “Thatcher Cottage,” “I’ll Save You from Me,” “That Thing in My Mirror,” and “The Vicar’s Ballgag.”

Morrissey and Marr promised fans that Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums) would join them in Spain, where they have transformed a villa into a comfortable recording studio. Diehard followers received news of the reunion with a mix of euphoria and confusion, the bewilderment arising over who Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce were.