Well, unquestionably a return to form, whether it's CiP or not.
For my part, it's simplistic to assess output album by album. It's just that the number of vital songs per album has declined. Nothing wrong with that, he's human, and he's been such a profound influence for 25 years that a little slack must be cut. I bought The Smiths on vinyl, that's how old I am. The quality of what's gone before makes us too exacting.
What's important is that he's still capable of something new that stitches to the heritage. My rule of thumb is that if there's a b-side that's better than something on the album, the ball's still rolling. So AYNIM is really good news.
