And this is why Anna is better at this: Less opinions, more actual listening. I don't particularly like the Smith (or even know half of what she writes about) but it makes me want to give it a spin more often than not.

I know a review is going to be a downhill slog when I read the word "hardcore". Bonus points on this review for applying it to yourself and not the band!

Although I share Mike's general disdain/disinterest regarding the Smiths, these columns are better when the listener simply has no idea about the record and therefore no preconceived notions.

i'm trying to imagine what you'd assign me for "never heard of em".

pitbull?

I'm calling OSHA.

Such beauty to this line: 'The next track, "I Know It's Over," wasn't over fast enough.' Thanks, Mike!

You've neatly captured how I've always felt about the Smiths. Well done.

Y'know, I spent most of the early 90's going to hardcore shows and those punks are the people that got me into the Smiths. One needn't be hardcore to the exclusion of everything else to be authentic.

The "rural skaters" aspect of the Smiths' fan base is more telling than ... well, than you allowed yourself to be told. Fact is, an awful lot of kids in rural areas would never even have heard of punk were it not for the made-in-the-80s droopiness of bands like the Smiths, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., etc., which was about as close to punk as most of us ever had access to before interviews with those artists told us whom they claimed as influences.