It is the fractious, profound, complicated dynamic of Morrissey and Marr.
THIS.
I'm a complete hater of how factions of fans pit band members against each other after that band splits. ie: Lennon-McCartney, Waters-Gilmour, etc. And while I think the Morrissey-Marr case was probably a bit more subtle, mostly because Marr wasn't really churning out stuff at the same rate as Morrissey, it was there.
I like the word 'fractious' here, and I completely agree. When I said I see this as a Marr record, that wasn't to belittle Morrissey's contribution. He's great on it too. And it could not have been as great as it was without these two conducting what is basically, all out war on each other, through their contributions to each song. Just, Marr wins out for me.