Pop & Miscellaneous

Morrissey - Greatest Hits (2008)

2009-10-13T19:28:51Z

Morrissey - Greatest Hits (2008)


1.	First of the Gang to Die
2.	In the Future When All’s Well
3.	I Just Want to See the Boy Happy
4.	Irish Blood, English Heart
5.	You Have Killed Me
6.	That’s How People Grow Up
7.	Everyday Is Like Sunday
8.	Redondo Beach
9.	Suedehead
10.	The Youngest Was the Most Loved
11.	The Last of the Famous International Playboys
12.	The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get
13.	All You Need Is Me
14.	Let Me Kiss You
15.	I Have Forgiven Jesus

Dear old Morrissey doesn’t make it easy for himself, does he? Always one for controversy and self-importance, his recent spat with the NME only goes to show that his love of a good fight is still as vibrant as it ever was. He'll need all that energy to convince anyone other than his legion of obsessive fans to purchase this, the fifth compilation of his career – not because of the quality of the tracks on offer but because, in all honesty, who wants these tracks that doesn’t already own them? In fact, almost all Morrissey fans would be able to make this album at home for the price of just two downloads – as it conforms to the now omnipresent 'Best Of' practice of including a pair of new songs.

For the record, neither That's Why People Grow Up or All You Need Is Me are anything special, though the latter has a reckless throwabout charm that suggests his next studio release - pencilled in for later this year - will be a more than worthy successor to the tantalisingly fresh Ringleader Of The Tormentors. As for the rest, the picks reflect a brilliantly pedantic approach to a Greatest Hits package that only the archly arrogant Morrissey could have. All 13 tunes are indeed hits, with nine of them having made it into the top ten. But that emphasis on making the name an absolute truth means that some of his finer singles have been left by the wayside in favour of weaker, more recent work which probably only achieved such lofty heights because of the way singles sales have slumped.

Certainly, the brooding Irish Blood, English Heart, the bounce of First Of The Gang To Die and the dramatic splendour of You Have Killed Me are more than capable of holding their own next to the established excellence of Suedehead and Everyday Is Like Sunday, but to have discarded Alma Matters, Certain People I Know or the unholy epicness of November Spawned A Monster simply because they didn't make it as high up the charts as average offerings such as I Just Want To See The Boy Happy or the frankly lumpen Redondo Beach simply doesn't make sense.

Yet, that's why we love Morrissey, isn't it? Greatest Hits is neither the best starting point for a bequiffed novice or a true reflection of his 20 year career – instead, it is an exercise in sheer bloody-mindedness and anyone who recognises the singer for what he is: a genuinely enigmatic, occasionally cantankerous, eternally intriguing genius, wouldn't have it any other way. ---Chris Lond, BBC Review

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Morrissey - Kill Uncle [Expanded Edition] (2013)

2013-05-08T15:55:52Z

Morrissey - Kill Uncle [Expanded Edition] (2013)


1. "Our Frank" 
2. "Sing Your Life" 
3. "Mute Witness" 
4. "King Leer" 
5. "Asian Rut" 
6. "Pashernate Love" 
7. "East West" 
8. "Found Found Found" 
9. "Driving Your Girlfriend Home" 
10. "The Harsh Truth Of The Camera Eye" 
11. "There's A Place In Hell For Me And My Friends (live in the studio version)" 
12. "(I'm) The End Of The Family Line"

Personnel:
    Morrissey – lyrics and vocals
    Mark E. Nevin – guitar, composer
    Mark Bedford – bass
    Andrew Paresi - percussion, drums
    Seamus Beaghen – keyboards
    Steven Heart – keyboards
    Nawazish Ali Khan – violin
    Linder – background vocals

With Kill Uncle, Morrissey descended into the ranks of self-parody, churning out a series of pleasant but tired alternative jangle pop songs that had neither melody nor much wit to distinguish them. Part of the problem lies with his choice of collaborators. Producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley don't provide the appropriately sympathetic backdrop for Morrissey's sly humor, while guitarist Mark E. Nevin is incapable of developing hooks. A few cuts, such as "(I'm) The End of the Family Line" and "There's a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends," stand out, but Kill Uncle is Morrissey's least distinguished record. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

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Morrissey - Swords (2009)

2009-10-13T19:24:14Z

Morrissey - Swords (2009)


01. Good Looking Man About Town 
02. Don’t Make Fun Of Daddy’s Voice 
03. If You Don’t Like Me, Don’t Look At Me 
04. Ganglord 
05. My Dearest Love 
06. The Never-Played Symphonies 
07. Sweetie Pie 
08. Christian Dior 
09. Shame Is The Name (With Chrissie Hynde) 
10. Munich Air Disaster 1958 
11. I Knew I Was Next 
12. It’s Hard To Walk Tall When You’re Small 
13. Teenage Dad On His Estate 
14. Children In Pieces 
15. Friday Mourning 
16. My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye 
17. Drive-In Saturday (Live) 
18. Because Of My Poor Education

While Morrissey is no stranger to the world of B-sides and rarities compilations, the series of three albums in his new millennium comeback represent a particularly fertile creative era for one of pop’s most idiosyncratic wordsmiths and fussbudgets. Considering the quality of the singles drawn from You Are the Quarry, Ringleader of the Tormentors, and Years of Refusal, it’s an utter disappointment that Swords, the collection of B-sides from those singles, is so uneven. “The Never-Played Symphonies” comes from the perspective of a man on his deathbed; even if the song is given some gravity by Morrissey’s recent on-stage collapse, it perhaps better represents his flair for the grandiose. Along with the lush, extravagant “Christian Dior,” “Symphonies” stands as one of the few highlights scattered among a great deal of over-written tracks. “Don’t Make Fun of Daddy’s Voice” squanders a delicious title with a punchline that falls flat both as comedy and self-referential metaphor (“When he was a teenage boy/Something got stuck in his throat”), while the swampy “Ganglord” takes swipes at the LAPD that sound badly dated and lack any true first-person authenticity. The molasses-thick production on “Ganglord” is just one of the misfires, with “Sweetie-Pie” dragging on interminably and the harmony vocal from Chrissie Hynde smothered in the mix on “Shame Is the Name.” With just a few exceptions, it isn’t hard to hear why these tracks were relegated to B-sides. A bonus disc of live performances that includes some of Morrissey’s best tracks from this era, including “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” and “I Just Want to See the Boy Happy,” plus a terrific cover of David Bowie’s “Drive-In Saturday” that pays tribute to the New York Dolls, is what ultimately salvages the collection. Even with these live cuts, though, Swords doesn’t have a particularly sharp point. ---Jonathan Keefe, slantmagazine.com

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Morrissey - Years of Refusal (2009)

2009-10-13T19:26:36Z

Morrissey - Years of Refusal (2009)


1 Something Is Squeezing My Skull 
2 Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed 
3 Black Cloud 
4 I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris 
5 All You Need Is Me 
6 When Last I Spoke to Carol 
7 That's How People Grow Up 
8 One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell 
9 It's Not Your Birthday Anymore 
10 You Were Good in Your Time 
11 Sorry Doesn't Help 
12 I'm OK By Myself

This time it's true: to these ears, this really is Morrissey's best album since 1994's Vauxhall And I. Years Of Refusal – another rollercoaster journey of wit and despair – follows three years after the much-vaunted UK No.1, Ringleader Of The Tormentors. It is succinct, punchy and stinging, a 12-track 43-minute palate cleanser.

The fullness of Morrissey's years has given his voice gravitas. Whereas once he seemed to be aspiring to a world of imaginary hurt, now he's living right in the centre of it. The unrequited love of Black Cloud seems to fit a man in his late 40s much better than the poet in his 20s; when he intones, "there is nothing I can do to make you mine," it packs appropriate hopelessness.

Morrissey's band, who have seemed a tad quorn 'n' potatoes in the past, are here completely on the money; turning their hand to mariachi, marching, glam. It may not have the subtlety of Ringleaders, but what it lacks in nuance is more than compensated for in grit. It's a fitting tribute to the production skills of Jerry Finn – who tragically died a month after completing recording.

Two of the tracks appeared on last years' Greatest Hits album, That's How People Grow Up and the rollicking All You Need Is Me, the maturation of the same gags he used in the Smiths ("there's a naked man standing laughing in your dreams/ You know who it is but you don't like what it means"). Like opener Something Is Squeezing My Skull, closer I'm OK by Myself is a fury of noise and blast, meaning that Years Of Refusal both comes in and goes out like a lion.

The album has already attracted detractors – which permanently come with his turf – but ultimately, Years Of Refusal will be seen as Morrissey's great 00s album. This is not a writer giddy with his hero – in many respects, I can take or leave him – this is the mature work one expects from an elder statesman. If there is any truth in what he has recently said, that he doesn't want to go on much longer, then this is one more step to ensuring a lasting legacy. Play Very Loud it says. ---Tom Byford, BBC Review

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Morrissey – 40 Hits Collection (2008)

2010-08-26T23:27:14Z

Morrissey – 40 Hits Collection (2008)


1. My Love Life
2. Alma Matters
3. November Spawned a Monster
4. Ammunition
5. Interesting Drug
6. Why Don’t You Find Out for Yourself
7. He Cried
8. He Knows I’d Love To See Him
9. Hold On To Your Friends
10. Piccadilly Palare
11. Yes, I Am Blind
12. Everyday Is Like Sunday
13. I Am Hated For Loving
14. Glamorous Glue
15. King Leer
16. You’re The One For Me Fatty
17. Boxers
18. Lucky Lips
19. I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday
20. Redondo Beach
21. Let Me Kiss You
22. Seasick Yet Still Docked
23. Wide To Receive
24. The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get
25. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Succesful
26. Come Back To Camden
27. Trouble Loves Me
28. Will Never Marry
29. Tony The Pony
30. Driving Your Girlfriend Home
31. Our Frank
32. The National Front Disco
33. Tomorrow
34. We’ll Let You Know
35. Sing Your Life
36. Certain People I Know
37. Sunny
38. Now My Heart IS Full
39. You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side
40. Suedehead

Dear old Morrissey doesn't make it easy for himself, does he? Always one for controversy and self-importance, his recent spat with the NME only goes to show that his love of a good fight is still as vibrant as it ever was. He'll need all that energy to convince anyone other than his legion of obsessive fans to purchase this, the fifth compilation of his career - not because of the quality of the tracks on offer but because, in all honesty, who wants these tracks that doesn't already own them? In fact, almost all Morrissey fans would be able to make this album at home for the price of just two downloads - as it conforms to the now omnipresent 'Best Of' practice of including a pair of new songs.

Yet, that's why we love Morrissey, isn't it? Greatest Hits is neither the best starting point for a bequiffed novice or a true reflection of his 20 year career - instead, it is an exercise in sheer bloody-mindedness and anyone who recognises the singer for what he is: a genuinely enigmatic, occasionally cantankerous, eternally intriguing genius, wouldn't have it any other way. --Chris Long, BBC Review

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