This has been my weightlifting and yoga soundtrack for the last week and now I'm giving it a final listen before it goes back in the box.
In some quarters The Smiths are still regarded as fey, asexual, vegetarians but there's a toughness in the music and the lyrics. It's just put across in an unusual way. It's the same kind of genius that allowed a cross-dressing, bi-sexual David Bowie to appeal to an audience who wouldn't usually be into that kind of thing.
This album of singles and B-sides comes from the tail end of their career. The band foundered, partly, because they lacked a manager who could have resolved the growing personal differences between the members of the group. I read a comment recently - I think it was from someone at their record company - that they were so insular and individual that you couldn't really help them or even get near them if you weren't part of their circle.
