While not truly a musical masterpiece, the reason Morrissey’s ninth full-length solo album is brilliant, consuming and one of the best things we’ll hear all year is for one simple reason: It’s Morrissey.
The legions of passionate Moz fans know every Morrissey album is a reason to celebrate. The former Smiths frontman has perfected darkly funny, melancholy and depressing-as-all-hell lyrics that truly speak to men and women the world over. He keeps it up with Years of Refusal, the follow-up to 2006’s unexpectedly spectacular Ringleader of the Tormentors.
Ringleader’s lush production, provided by Tony Visconti (T. Rex, David Bowie, the Moody Blues), perfectly accompanied Morrissey’s soaring and dramatic style. The late Jerry Finn, who helmed Morrissey’s 2004 so-called comeback record, You Are the Quarry, returned for Years of Refusal and brought with him an arsenal of guitar-heavy attacks.
Opening track “Something Is Squeezing My Skull” slams on the accelerator and never lets go. The song’s swift two-and-a-half minutes of consistent rock riffage offers an aggressive – and appropriate – backdrop to Morrissey’s proclamations of “There is no hope in modern life/ … There is no love in modern life/ … No true friends in modern life.”
The music of Years of Refusal – as justly expected – reaches nowhere near the groundbreaking work of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, nor does it recall the sulk ‘n’ sigh worthiness of Moz’s earlier work. The true gift of a Morrissey song is, of course, the lyrics. Undeniably one of the greatest and most celebrated pop lyricists of our time, the sexually ambiguous vegetarian does not disappoint with his latest set of woefully spot-on truths.
The intensely clever and sometimes tricky single “All You Need Is Me” addresses not only his irresistible allure (See: the plain-as-day title) but also the homoeroticism that is often found – or believed to be – in his work. “There’s a naked man standing, laughing in your dreams/ You know who it is/ but you don’t like what it means,” he pours out, soon repeating an address of the confusing press attention he receives: “There’s so much destruction/ all over the world/ And all you can do is/ complain about me.”
The central refrain of the song offers a review no one else can give: “You don’t like me but you love me/ Either way you’re wrong/ You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone.”
If “All You Need Is Me” isn’t proof enough, the punch of “When Last I Spoke to Carol” is a prime example of the fact that the Pope of Mope still has it.
Built upon momentum-providing percussion, the trumpet-supported song does not deny Morrissey a chance to “oh-whoa-ohehohoh” or narrate Carol’s rigid life: “I’ve hammered a smile across this pasty face of mine/ Since the day I was born in 1975.”
Years of Refusal does not get as personal or as intense as Morrissey’s previous work – as has been his path recently – though Ringleader mightily brought back his concentration on people and relationships, not just concepts, metaphors and places.
One of his stronger songs of this decade is “That’s How People Grow Up,” an unforgiving lament that harks back to Morrissey’s classic work. Released as a single last year, the balladeer gives us his best, “I was wasting my time/ Trying to fall in love/ … 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/ That’s how people grow up.”
In fact, the number of strong songs on Years of Refusal is astounding. The album is a bit of a disappointment at first, considering the greatness that has come before it. But once Morrissey sings, there is no point in trying to resist loving him. “You hiss and groan and you constantly moan/ But you don’t ever go away/ And that’s because/ All you need is” Morrissey.
rhiggins@umd.edu
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
