You Are the Quarry

¿Por qué hay tantos putos álbums de Morrissey en esta lista? Como siempre, bastante aburrido. No es su peor pero tampoco es decir mucho.

Canción destacada: Let Me Kiss You

The watershed moment when Morrissey went from Introspective Insecure Caring Morrissey to Irrationally Angry Blobby Morrissey.

Very generic Morrissey. Dated lyrics..

Morrissey seems to be a flvery enigmatic person. I think the music is overall pretty good, and had themes that are generally pretty interesting and progressive, I just feel like the instrumentals and song diversity is itself pretty one-note. Not bad and definitely piqued my interest, but not one to revisit often. 3.4/5 -> 3/5

Reveal thoughts: OK, Morrissey could be coo…2004?! Wasn’t Morrissey about 20 years past his sell date by 2004?

So, It's hard not to like, because it's very Morrissey. He's got a very cool, soothing voice, and I like it. So there's that. But some of the lyrics, man. He's a deeply unlikeable guy, I think. He's VERY fucking pretentious who seems to think he's special and better than everyone. And sometimes, he *really* wants you to know that, at the expense of the song. An example is in America Is Not The World. Now, as an American, I like a good takedown of 'Merica as much as anybody, but lyrics like "Oh, in America, it brought you the hamburger. Well, America, you know where you can shove your hamburger." Like, what? That's not clever, that's just clumsy.

Anyway, I like his voice. 3 stars.

I’m at a 3.5 that will get bumped up to a very begrudging 4.

I simply don’t have a link to Morrissey’s stuff in a more personal sense to feel like the art is inseparable from the artist here like it is for other problematic performers (looking at you, Mr. West) – I know the guy’s kind of a shithead (I’m being very generous with “kind of”), and I’ve got to reckon with that, but I think I can live with it, for one reason or another.

I’ll say this; because I know he is who he is, I paid a whole lot of attention to the lyrics on this album, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I think I like Morrissey when he’s not fucking complaining. The best tracks on this album are the ones that avoid overt bitching about society or ones that avoid when he goes “woe is me” and gets all self-referential and whiny. When he's fucking complaining, I despise the man, but at least he complains to some good instrumentals.

There are 6 tracks I really liked on a first pass; “Irish Blood, English Heart”, “I Have Forgiven Jesus”, “Come Back to Camden”, “First of the Gang to Die”, “Let Me Kiss You”, & “All the Lazy Dykes”. That last one is probably the most controversial pick up there (especially with that title), but I think it’s a genuinely progressive track for the time, even with the chance that it’s just Morrissey trying to court controversy of some kind. He still performs it, so he has to believe in its message to some degree.

The other 6 tracks are at least technically sound, and none of them are necessarily bad, they’re just either not super engaging or lyrically rather annoying. There are times where I thought another singer or band (namely Oasis, who he really tries to ape at certain points on this album) would’ve killed it on some of the more average tracks. It’s never in the soundscape, even if most of the tracks rarely feel like they’re from 2004. They all sound good, but instrumentally, this really feels like it’s jumping around from the late 80s to the late 90s to me, in a way that’s noticeable, but passable.

Ultimately, I did like the album, and I like it enough to bump it up to a 4, begrudgingly. It trims the awkwardness of Viva Hate down, has much more concise songwriting and energy in the tracks, and when he’s not bitching and moaning, this album really works for me. Of course, he moans and bitches a lot, but at least he’s moaning and bitching in a better way than he did on Viva Hate. I could (and probably will) come to regret the 4, but for now, it just feels kinda right. At the very least, I think it’s no less than 3 (or a 2 if you REALLY fucking hate this guy, which is fair).

It's impossible to evaluate a solo career without reference to their prior band, and when your prior band was the best of 80s your new stuff can only ever pale in comparison. Musically, this is boring adult indie contemporary, missing the jangle genius and thumping bass of the Smiths we're left with bloated orchestration and slow sub-Oasis strumming. So attention goes to the vocals (fine) and lyrics, which are a mix of self-pity (but without the heightened youthful witty melodrama that made this arch and fun I'm the 80s) and banal nationalism. One of the biggest loser trajectories in music history

xiiii tem que escutar escondido esse hein

velho babaca filha da puta do caralho vai tomar no cu. vai se fude. first of the gang to die é um clássico. é um dos albuns mais presunçosos dele, mas eu até que gosto

People judge the person instead the musician, this noticed here and in Kanye’s reviews as well. I embarked on this journey keeping in mind that I don’t care about Morrissey or Kanye the persons, but the musicians.

That said, I enjoyed this album. It has two great hits and a couple of decent lyrics. I believe it deserves the three stars.

Another fine example of their being far too just Morrissey on this list.

The Smiths albums and maybe one solo album would have been plenty thank you.

I've just checked and there's four (yes FOUR) Morrissey solo albums on this list. I'm not entirely certain there's a justification for 3 The Smiths albums, but without Marr, Morrissey is just a droning arse.

Morrissey tends to drone on a bit for me....

He sings nicely. I don't have the background knowledge as to why this guy is so despised. 3*

Ok, Morrissey is an arsehole. And some of the lyrics on this are so risible they made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion; I'm not sure the humor was intentional. But you know what? I enjoyed the album, quite a lot. Going to separate the art from the artist and give this a four.

This is an overall good album. A lot of the songs are quite catchy and approachable. A number of tracks do tend to descend into generic Morrissey warblings, but thankfully it's not too many. First of the Gang to Die is a tune!

3.5 rounded up.

Was okay, but nothing really stood out.

When this album first came out, I was a big fan of it. The singles that came off it were a pleasant surprise on the radio and the full album had some great songs while some of the lesser songs on the album didn't bother me that much. And this was a deserved return for Morrissey in the spotlight.
Over time this view has changed a bit.
Where older albums like "Vauxhall and I" and newer ones like "I Am Not a Dog on a Chain" are still feeling fresh, I never reach for this album anymore.
And re-listening to it over the last day I think it was indeed one of the last times this album would've played on my stereo, with the exception of one or two songs.

Ok Morrissey we get it America sucks and you hate it, sure. Irish Blood, English Heart is not my thing. I Have Forgiven Jesus is pretty good.

I try to seperate the art from the artist, so I went into this one with an open mind

But jesus christ it was bad

The music itself wasnt too bad on some songs, so I did think of giving it another star just for that. But no, his whiny drivel was too much. The lyrics were so bad I can't look past it

"Hey you big fat pig" on the opening track was enough to cement my hatred in this album. Cringiest lyrics ever. And you know he thought he was so clever and edgy writing that

1 ⭐️

Better than I anticipated...had been a huge fan of Moz's solo work. Very political. 3/5