There's absolutely nothing wrong with not liking NMA. If you want to check them out I'd also say to go for their old stuff. I stopped listening to them in '94, and even that's pretty late , and the albums after '94 pretty much sucked. And it's definitely true, they sound really dated from today's point of view.
I always liked their folky tunes more than their "rock" songs, and my favourite album is "Thunder & Consolation", but that's probably because that's the first album I knew by them, and it did console me as a teenie... And besides, their folk songs really don't sound that dated.
Still, when NMA were cool (in the 80's), they rocked, even though I hardly listen to them anymore.
Cheers, Doc
P.S.: And how do you like The Smiths, by the way?