Here are The Smiths albums in order: four studio records released in four consecutive years, 1984 to 1987. Studio albums only, which means the compilations and live records that make the catalogue look bigger than it is are not counted here and are not on my map either.
- The Smiths (1984)
- Meat Is Murder (1985)
- The Queen Is Dead (1986)
- Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
Four albums is not much to map. What makes the Smiths discography map worth drawing is what happens either side of them, because the sheet also carries Morrissey's solo career running above the band years and Johnny Marr's running below.
Seven names, and only seven
This is the cleanest band map I have drawn. Across all four albums there are seven credited musicians in total.
Four of them run the whole way: Morrissey on vocals, Johnny Marr on guitars and harmonica, Andy Rourke on bass and Mike Joyce on drums. Nobody joins, nobody leaves, nobody misses a record. Four parallel lines calling at four stations.
The other three are branch lines, and there are only three. Paul Carrack plays piano and organ on three tracks of the 1984 debut. Annalisa Jablonska sings on two more of them. Stephen Street plays bass and guitar on Strangeways, Here We Come in 1987. That is the entire supporting cast.
Set that against a band like The Cure, where one 1996 album alone carries 19 credited musicians, and you can see the point of drawing this stuff rather than listing it. The Smiths made four albums with a nearly closed circuit of people, and the map shows that as a shape rather than a claim.
The Smiths albums in order, and what came after
The reason this map is a split sheet is that the interesting part of the story starts when the four parallel lines stop in 1987.
Morrissey's half runs on from Viva Hate in 1988 and keeps going, picking up a long succession of guitarists, drummers and one-off guests along the way. Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer become the two lines that carry most of it, and the map fills out steadily as the solo years go on.
Johnny Marr's half goes the other way. Rather than one line accumulating players, it fans out into other people's bands: The The, Electronic with Bernard Sumner, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, and then his own solo records. Two careers out of the same four stations, drawn in opposite directions on one sheet.
Companion maps for Morrissey and Johnny Marr
If one of those two halves is the reason you are here, both exist as maps of their own. The Morrissey discography map charts the solo albums and the musicians on each of them in full. The Johnny Marr map follows his path across bands, collaborations and solo releases.
How the print is made
Each map is a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper with a textured matte finish, archival and acid-free. Every line comes from checking album credits and session archives by hand. No AI is used at any stage.
The Smiths map is portrait, in two sizes: A2 at 420 x 594 mm (16 x 23 in) and A1 at 594 x 841 mm (23 x 33 in), with 18 x 24 in and 24 x 36 in equivalents for buyers in the USA. Every size comes unframed, from £42, or ready to hang in a black wood frame. Full detail is on the print specifications page.
Questions I get asked about the Smiths map
How many albums did The Smiths make?
Four studio albums, from the 1984 debut to Strangeways, Here We Come in 1987.
Why are there only seven musicians on the band section?
Because that is what the credits say. Morrissey, Marr, Rourke and Joyce played on all four, and only Paul Carrack, Annalisa Jablonska and Stephen Street appear alongside them.
What is not on the map?
Hatful of Hollow, The World Won't Listen, Louder Than Bombs, Rank and the other compilations and live records are all off it, because the maps chart studio albums. Producers do not get lines unless they are credited for playing something, which is why Stephen Street appears for Strangeways and not before it.
Does the map cover the solo careers as well?
Yes. This one is a split sheet, with Morrissey above the band years and Johnny Marr below them. There are also separate maps for each of them if you want one career in full.
Which size should I choose?
A2 works on a smaller wall. A1 is the one to choose if you want to read the names on the lines from across a room, and this map has a lot of names on the solo halves.
Related music maps
The wider music map collection covers the rest of the range, including the Manchester bands that grew out of the same few streets. If you are buying for someone and are not sure which band is theirs, there is an art print gift card.
