The reclusive mope rocker remains a hero to anyone whose formative years were nothing like a John Hughes movie. As the singer of the '80s new-wave band The Smiths, Morrissey - who will play five sold-out shows at the Apollo this week - was the most intriguing, mysterious and romantic alternative to hair bands and teen pop.

He sang about the exquisite, torturous pleasure he found in loneliness, alienation and unrequited love (in one of The Smiths' best-known songs, "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out," he sang to a crush about the unparalleled joy he would feel should he have the privilege to get in a car crash and "die by your side").

And though he hasn't released an album since 1997 (he went solo after the band split in 1987), Morrissey is an icon not just to now-thirtysomething Smiths fans but to a whole new generation of medicated teens.

"There are a remarkable numbert of teenagers who are just discovering Morrissey now," says Marc Spitz, who profiled Morrissey for this month's Spin cover story and whose recent novel, "How Soon Is Never?" is about a lifelong Smiths fan who attempts to reunite the band.

"But I think the kids who are 5 or 6 today will find The Smiths in 10 years - once life has wrecked them a bit. It's become a rite of passage: puberty, then Morrissey."

Spitz attributes Morrissey's now decades-long appeal to the singer's singular ability to connect to anyone who feels peripheral or profoundly misunderstood.

"There's something about Morrissey's voice that's instantly trustworthy," Spitz says.

"You believe he's sincere when he sings about isolation and frustration, things common to adolescence. And you don't feel as alone. You feel understood. This works when you're 35 as well."

Morrissey's first record in seven years, "You Are the Quarry," will be released on May 18; aside from his nationwide tour, the singer will also oversee the acts for this summer's Meltdown Festival in England.

So how does a 45-year-old recluse - who, at the height of his fame, was never heard on mainstream radio and was relegated to the after-midnight slot on MTV - come to wield such influence in a pop landscape littered with "American Idol" rejects?

"It's an extremely well-plotted comeback - almost a media blitz," Spitz says. "But I think there's something organic about the music itself that doesn't require spinning or hard selling.

It's akin to a new generation discovering The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. The bulk of what Morrissey's done in The Smiths and solo is timeless."

And his appeal is, to say the least, wide-ranging: one of his most ardent fans is Craig Kilborn, who has booked Morrissey to perform five nights in a row on Kilborn's late-night frat-fest. So if you're without tickets for the Apollo shows, you have a little something to look forward to.