The best part of the Smiths was Johnny Marr's guitar playing. He's still a hugely influential player on the Britpop scene. The music of the band was tough minded and edgy and it was a blast of fresh air at time when synth music scene in the UK was approaching moribund state of being.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with the way Morrissey sings. Morrissey sometimes comes across as manic/depressive drag queen performing in a in a post-punk carbaret. Morrissey's vocals and lyrics often indulge in bathos and play upon mawkish sentimentality to the point of ludicrous excess. It was okay to laugh at loud at Morrissey's buffoonish sentiments because his self-parody was often calculated and intentional.
The Cure's Robert Smith cultivated the same sort of stage personae but seemed far more credible. There was an alluring element of Robert Smith's personality that was far more dark and disturbing than Morrissey's often comical confrontations with his own free floating anxiety.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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