Another fan of The Smiths (and of marmite)! I think they got better and better and it's a tragedy they split up so soon. Strangeways shows them on the crest of breaking out of insularity. "Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me" is immense, as is "Death of a Disco Dancer", and arguably "Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before" would've been their greatest single if the record company hadn't pulled it before its release. I think I remember Bono around the time of Zoo TV admitting the Smiths were a better band than U2 and expressing his disappointment they'd split up.
The Queen is Dead is a great album too, and the blistering version of the title track that starts "Rank" is perhaps the best example out their of how powerful they were live. A truly cathartic song with a semi-coherent political focus: "past the pub that saps your body, past the church that snatches your money... life is very long when you're lonely."
Like Kmama I am going to look forward to getting this.
Thanks for the link an tha - Simon Reynolds was one of my favourite journalists from the mid-late 80s.