joeymozzer writes:

In Sunday's Calender section of the Los Angeles Times (Pop Eye - Steve Hochman):

Morrissey tells how he really feels
Morrissey may have gone seven years since his last album, but the English singer's notoriously terse, tart tongue has not been blunted in the interim.

Asked if the producers of VH1's "Bands Reunited" series had the temerity to approach him about a Smiths episode, given the famously bitter rift between him and former bandmate Johnny Marr, he offered, "I'm standing at the top window with an air rifle, waiting for them to arrive."

That attitude bodes well for fans who waited out the hiatus for his new album, "You Are the Quarry," due May 18. The layoff has not changed their hero one bit.

"I still think the human race is vastly overrated," he says, summing up the tone of his new material. "It's a bit of an emotional splurge, but it couldn't be any other way, to be honest."

The pent-up emotions, he says, came from his inability to find a satisfactory label to sign with. That changed last year when he made a deal with Sanctuary Records. Then, in a move that helped sharpen the attack of the songs, he teamed with Jerry Finn, a California producer known for his work with Green Day and Blink-182.

"It would have been easier to go with someone who was somewhat safer," Morrissey says. "But I thought Jerry was a risk, and it's a risk that worked fantastically well. The music is very emotive, very incendiary, difficult to ignore."