Morrissey - maybe my parents were right all along.
Posted by Leedsboy on 1 March 2008 - 9:12pm.
I have to say that David Quantick's Morrissey greatest hits review was so spot on I read it out loud to my wife. I have been troubled by how little I care about Moz now when The Smiths have always been the most important band to me. I have tried the new albums and have not managed to listen to one all the way through.
He has turned into a miserable Larry Grayson. Maybe my parents were right all along.....
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No they weren't!
I found the Morrissey article a little unpleasant to be honest.
Yes they were!
Nope, disagree. I too thought that the review was spot on. I didn't understand why the Critics suddenly rushed to Moz's last 2 albums when there had been no distinct change or improvement in his musical stylings. I'm tired of his apologists excusing every single increasingly offensive action and / or utterance. He's a grown man. He should act like one.
Agreed.
The Smiths' music was light, airy and beautiful, whilst Morrissey's solo work is mostly stodgy, thick-set and tuneless. I would say his 'pub rock' band does him no favours, but this would be an insult to musicians in pub rock bands, many of whom were superb players.
Stodgy, thick-set and tuneless - not!
David Quantick may have been correct about the tracks chosen for the best of album leaning toward the Nine Below Zero end of the scale (although I think the band sound fantastic when they turn the amps up to 11), but a very good proportion of Morrissey's solo work is made up of ballads.
Vauxhall and I springs to mind as a particularly good example of an album light on its musical toes - "Now My Heart is Full" "The More you Ignore Me" "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself" and "Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning" are all lovely.
But there are plenty of other examples from his other albums.
"My Love Life" which appeared on the World of Morrissey compilation is cracker as is "Come Back to Camden" from You Are The Quarry. I could go on.
The Morrissey solo canon is well worth investigating, especially as, at the moment you can pick it all up dirt cheap from a certain high street chain retailer with a very stupid name.
Vauxhall and I...
is a really good record, I agree. But next to it, his other solo records sound really lame to me.
Personally, when I read the review
I was almost moved to stand up and applaud, so exactly did David Quantick duplicate my feelings on Morrissey of late. There's probably more of a critical wish (increasingly forlorn) for a 'return to form' by Stephen Patrick than for any other artist of his generation and it seems that this means he gets an easy ride in the press. After all he does bear "more grudges than lonely High court judges" and who wants to be on the receiving end of the infamous Moz disdain?
You read the review out loud to your wife?
Wow.
I can just imagine me trying that. And the response I'd get.
The Moz devotion is still out there and can still be pretty extreme - after the recent (latest) NME furore there was one young lady who took to walking around Manchester city centre with a big cardboard 'Morrissey is Innocent' placard, to the general bemusement and amusement of the lunchtime shoppers.
He had a point (Quantick)
But I still enjoy the solo stuff - it's not all bad, sometimes great. I wouldn't say critics have been over kind to Morrissey. Plenty of his work has been slated - Maladjusted, Kill Uncle. The last 2 albums had some good work on them, but no it'll never be The Smiths again. There is a tendency to react against anyone who seems overrated - isn't it just as unreasonable to say it's all crap as to say it's all brilliant. Does it always have to be so polarised?
Same Old
Agreed with most of David's review. I like the odd Smiths records, but after three, you've heard it all before. Have a lot of respect for Marr though.Morrissey's last solo album was so dull I threw it into a supermarket bin.He looks middle too and needs to cut down on the jaffa cakes.
At the risk of
being a contrarian, I prefer Mozza's solo stuff to The Smiths - sonically at least. The likes of Irish Blood..., Life is a Pig Sty and even the last single are - to my cloth ears - far preferable to alleged classics such as Reel around the Fountain and This Charming Man. By large and large, I found His Old Group's (TM) outpourings a tawdry bunch of Byrds-a-likes and hamfisted updates on girl group classics.
And, nope, I'm not doing this because I have a death-wish or desire to attract a fatwah from Steve's more, ahem, devout followers, honest.
PS I didn't use fatwah because he's put on a few pounds either, anyone reading from the cheap joke seats
PPS Poor Johnny Marr looked a bit too much like a trendy rock 'n roll dad when he guested with the Cribs at the NME fandango. Was that hair dyed????
Agreed
I'm with you - as much as I like The Smiths I'd give Morrissey solo the edge. Much more varied and interesting. Even if he has been slightly inconsistent, I can't really think of anyone I like who's been going this long without releasing a couple of below-par tunes.
Dyed hair in rock!!
O shame on Mr Marr, whatever next!!
I agree
Also Morrissey's singing voice is far superior these days, a much richer tone.
Don't get me wrong, I love The Smiths, I just prefer his solo stuff and am about 99% more likely to reach for Boy Racer or You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side if I want to listen to him than reach for The Queen Is Dead.
I think it is romanticism for The Smiths that gets in the way. There is a belief their music can never be bettered by their ex-vocalist, and thus the prophesy self fulfils.
Your Arsenal & Vauxhall & I...
...are both outstanding albums. In fact, Vauxhall & I is better that any of the Smiths albums.
I agree with one aspect of David Quantick's review: that the band are so 'meat & potatoes'. Moz is very loyal to Boorer and Whyte and they have written some amazing songs but I think he needs a change now.
Morrissey? His band are meat and potatoes?
Has anyone told him? Which is meat and who are the potatoes? I don't want to paraphrase any old output but......
Yep
Surely for veggie like Mozzer his band are potatoes and, er, potatoes
Boorer / Whyte / Tobias
I have to disagree on the comment regarding his band. Although Boorer has been sidelined a bit recently (though he apparently writes much of the next album) on "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" all of the interesting ones are written by White (Life Is A Pigsty, I Will See You In Far Off Places, Dear God Please Help Me...). Jesse Tobias, the new guitarist (White doesn't tour anymore) wrote the music for all the meat-and-potatoes tunes (The Youngest Was The Most Loved, In The Future When All's Well). I don't mind the Tobias ones but they're musically they are far less interesting, almost an aproximation of what he might think a Morrissey song sounds like.