Artist: Morrissey
Album: Years Of Refusal
Album: Years Of Refusal
Year: 2009
Grade: 4 pretzels
By now, Morrissey is somewhat of a known quantity. Twenty-five years of albums and emoting and flowers have locked Morrissey’s image in everyone’s collective mind. We know his music will be somewhat gentle, but bitingly acerbic. We know he’ll sing a few songs about how he just can’t find love. He’ll probably take a few pot shots at choice political targets, too. There’s this established pattern, right?
Well…sort of. The past five years have seen a Morrissey renaissance, ever since emerging in 2004 with You Are The Quarry. Moz is turning the guitars up and reshaping his voice into something strident and forceful. Years Of Refusal is a continuation of this process and it feels like Morrissey is finally becoming comfortable in his new skin. The songs are short, to the point and vicious. The first eight whip by you, with nothing exceeding four minutes and most straining to make it through three. I’m fairly certain this has something to do with the young hired guns Moz has got playing for him these days and, at least on this record, it sounds damn near great. Morrissey turns 50 this year, but no one wants to hear him sing about being old. How many witty one-liners can you really expect to get out of settling down and watching some nice TV? No one wants to hear that.
Now, Morrissey being Morrissey, most of the songs on Years Of Refusal are about the some old Morrissey problems, namely, how damn confusing his love life is. The songs tend to fall into one of three categories:
1) Songs about how nobody loves Morrissey and how this makes him sad
2) Songs that explain why nobody loves Morrissey
3) Songs that explain how, despite what he just said three minutes ago, Morrissey doesn’t actually need love
I’m sure you can see the vicious cycle working here. On “Throwing My Arms Around Paris”, he’s embracing the metaphorical city because “only stone and steel accept my love.” Aww, tears for Morrissey. But then he turns around and unleashes this zinger on “That’s How People Grow Up”: “I was driving my car, I crashed and broke my spine, so yes, there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.” This sort of contradictory lyrical backpeddling isn’t new for Morrissey, but it’s never been quite as obvious. His voice has found some new power, which certainly drives the songs more than ever before, but it also grinds some of the subtlety out of his lyrics. The amazing part is that all this doesn’t detract from the album. This new Morrissey is a very direct Morrissey, which is something people have been begging Moz to be all his life. Even though he’s trying to say eight different things at once, it’s the first time it sounds like he’s saying exactly what he wants to say. There are a few flaws on Years Of Refusal (especially the more-or-less forgettable last fourth of the album), but overall, it’s a respectable success. It might even find ol’ Mozzer some love somewhere. We can only hope…
Well…sort of. The past five years have seen a Morrissey renaissance, ever since emerging in 2004 with You Are The Quarry. Moz is turning the guitars up and reshaping his voice into something strident and forceful. Years Of Refusal is a continuation of this process and it feels like Morrissey is finally becoming comfortable in his new skin. The songs are short, to the point and vicious. The first eight whip by you, with nothing exceeding four minutes and most straining to make it through three. I’m fairly certain this has something to do with the young hired guns Moz has got playing for him these days and, at least on this record, it sounds damn near great. Morrissey turns 50 this year, but no one wants to hear him sing about being old. How many witty one-liners can you really expect to get out of settling down and watching some nice TV? No one wants to hear that.
Now, Morrissey being Morrissey, most of the songs on Years Of Refusal are about the some old Morrissey problems, namely, how damn confusing his love life is. The songs tend to fall into one of three categories:
1) Songs about how nobody loves Morrissey and how this makes him sad
2) Songs that explain why nobody loves Morrissey
3) Songs that explain how, despite what he just said three minutes ago, Morrissey doesn’t actually need love
I’m sure you can see the vicious cycle working here. On “Throwing My Arms Around Paris”, he’s embracing the metaphorical city because “only stone and steel accept my love.” Aww, tears for Morrissey. But then he turns around and unleashes this zinger on “That’s How People Grow Up”: “I was driving my car, I crashed and broke my spine, so yes, there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.” This sort of contradictory lyrical backpeddling isn’t new for Morrissey, but it’s never been quite as obvious. His voice has found some new power, which certainly drives the songs more than ever before, but it also grinds some of the subtlety out of his lyrics. The amazing part is that all this doesn’t detract from the album. This new Morrissey is a very direct Morrissey, which is something people have been begging Moz to be all his life. Even though he’s trying to say eight different things at once, it’s the first time it sounds like he’s saying exactly what he wants to say. There are a few flaws on Years Of Refusal (especially the more-or-less forgettable last fourth of the album), but overall, it’s a respectable success. It might even find ol’ Mozzer some love somewhere. We can only hope…
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