The five hundred and ninety-ninth album: #599 The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
Strangeways is a pretty poppy, accessible album to listen to, the ballads and more upbeat song balancing quite well. The lyrics that follow are more interesting, focusing on the darker side a fair bit, with Girlfriend in a Coma not hiding the panic it wants to reference. It doesn't go over the top, either musically - where it's often quite pleasantly constrained - or lyrically, where it feels like it stays grounded. It has such a perfect mix of everything going on here, art without being pretentious, accessible without being dumbed down, that it is still a great album to listen to.