In a word, perfect.
What really made it for me, aside from the obvious, was Matt Walker's drumming. Matt's sound is not at all dissimilar to Mike Joyce's, especially the way he leads with the snare, at least to my ear. Although Matt is obviously a lot more skilled than Mike was on that first Smiths album.
The guitar is SPOT-on, effortless to the point of feeling eerie. Jesse plays Johnny Marr's entire original guitar part. Boz plays an acoustic, but is not too audible.
The vocals are just what you'd expect (or at least what I would expect) from Morrissey of 2006. Completely faithful, but at the same time, he can do vocal backflips through this song by this point if he wants to. His sense of confidence is just incredible. Hearing it, I just felt grateful to be alive at the same time as him right now.
Yeah, both nights he changed 'England is mine' to 'England is swine'. Not my favorite lyrical change-up, but, well, whatever.
love, math+
