Morrissey commented on his and Street's partnership in a 1988 interview, "Working with Stephen as a producer is quite different from writing with him, and even his personality has changed dramatically, within this sphere; he's more relaxed, and more exciting."

Morrissey also contrasted the "aggressive" musicianship of Marr with Street's "gentle side," describing the latter as "something I find totally precious.

[2] For the album, Street played bass and recruited drummer Andrew Paresi and Durutti Column guitarist Vini Reilly.

[4] In an interview in 2014 Vini Reilly said "I want to talk about Stephen Street about whom I've said wrong things in the past; this is not an excuse, this is fact, I have suffered from what they call 'displaced anger' and this is where you're very angry with yourself and you don't understand, you just shout at people you really care about.

This edition controversially omits, along with the name of Vini Reilly, one of the original album's tracks, "The Ordinary Boys", and includes the session outtake "Treat Me Like a Human Being".

Rolling Stone, which had expected the now solo artist to "wallow", called the album "a tight, fairly disciplined affair".

[13] A negative review came from Spin, who wrote "without guitarist/composer Johnny Marr at his side, the mahatma of mope rock seems to have gone out for a nice depressing stroll without noticing that he didn't have a stitch to wear".