The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead (Rough Trade)

THIS IS NEITHER the time nor the place to indulge in trivial banter; suffice to say that The Smiths' peculiar career manoeuvres, which have caused their audience much exasperation of late, are rendered utterly obsolete by the splendour of The Queen Is Dead, the album which history will in due course denote as being the key work in forcing the group's Philistine opposition to down chisels and embrace the concept of The Smiths as the one truly vital voice of the Eighties.