Happy Morrissey day, everyone! I review the album in this week's Weekly, but here it is a few days early. You Are the Quarry, Ringleader of the Tormentors and Years of Refusal are the Mozzer's Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times. Believe it!
The Smiths broke up in 1987, but people are still clinging onto
hope that they'll eventually reunite. The rumor comes up every year as
the announcement of a Coachella lineup looms, and every year, it turns
out to be bunk. Routinely, you'll encounter people who may not have
even been alive during the Smiths existence, who insist “Morrissey's
solo stuff is OK, but what I really like is the Smiths.”
Years of Refusal is Morrissey's ninth solo album, and the most
compelling argument yet for fans to finally move on from his former
life. Punctuating a career resurgence that started with 2004's You Are
the Quarry and continued with 2006's Ringleader of the Tormentors,
Morrissey's music has never quite rocked so hard, thanks to the
youthful energy of his current band (guided by Moz veteran and “musical
director” Boz Boorer). Lead track “Something is Squeezing My Skull”
makes this quite clear, harkening back to the similarly raucous opener
of the singer's excellent 1992 release, Your Arsenal (“You're Gonna
Need Someone On Your Side”), but with an energy all its own.
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Hardcore fans (of which Morrissey has many) may bemoan the inclusion of
“All You Need Is Me” and “That's How People Grow Up”–from his 2008
Greatest Hits and performed live since 2007–but they don't feel out of
place, and merit wider recognition. Only first single “I'm Throwing My
Arms Around Paris” is reminiscent of earlier material; the rest
explores new territory, like the spaghetti western flair of “When Last
I Spoke To Carol.” Lyrically, he remains biting (“Did you really think
we meant all of those syrupy, sentimental things that we said,” he asks
on “It's Not Your Birthday Anymore”), but he's wisely matured past the
mopey pleas that he's famous for–instead of dreaming that somebody
loves him, he lets us know, “I'm OK By Myself.”
