"[The Smiths] emerged out of the UK post-punk scene, but it wouldn’t be any more accurate to call The Smiths “post-punk” than it would be to call the Meat Puppets “hardcore.” Whoever you tried to compare them to, they sounded different. Whoever influenced them–be it The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, or the New York Dolls–they transcended those influences and made them their own. They got even better throughout their airtight, four-albums-in-four-years run, but they already had their unique approach entirely figured out on this debut. Andnce you fuse The Smiths’ influence with any of the more hardcore-informed albums [of 1984], you’ve pretty much got the ingredients for the vast majority of popular post-hardcore and emo."