"The set ignores some of the finest - and more controversial - moments of his erratic solo career in favour of Smiths gems"

What did you want him to play, National Front Disco? Asian Rut? This is why I don't read tabloids.

Moz sounds like crap on this cd. I can't believe he would give anybody permission to release this. I have countless bootlegs cd's of his that sound 1,000 times better than this one. Im no tech, so really Im not sure why this cd sounds so horrible, but maybe because his voice sometimes sounds like Kermit The Frog and other times my man sounds like he yodeling. Sure, go ahead and rip me. I expect that, I will be surprised however if you also feel this cd sucks.
Peace,
Fuzzy

of all the cheap dailies The Mirror is by far the worst. Its deterioration started once page 3 was dropped, it thought it would then be a 'crusading paper'. Too much ink and opinions - "vote labour" then it was against "new labour" Yawn Yawn.
Unrelated but has anyone read the mail lately? Everyone gets slagged off.... what is is with all this new negativity?
Even chip shops have stopped wrapping food in them...must be the smell of bullsh*t..

Gavin Martin is correct about this. Bring back Johnny Marr or kick this band out and get in some new musicians. They are respectable, workaday, but totally uninspired. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't listen to much else. There's just no fire in them - look at 'Crashing Bores', which while lyrically amusing, has the most plodding, crashingly boring backing track imaginable.

Gavin Martin gave YATQ a good review last year if I remember correctly - so he's not anti-Moz, and his attacks do seem harsh.

But his assessment of the band is correct these days. They made excellent music for Arsenal and Vauxhall, then became the session musicians they are today. 'Noise Is The Best Revenge' is a prime example - tuneless, leaden, unimaginative. Moz's career will end up in one big rut if he doesn't get new songwriters.

Mirror belongs to the trash category of the British tabloid dailies. They just HAD to have a dig at Morrissey, didn't they?
It'd be Great if Morrissey was for once being judged by his own merits - and not always being compared to the Smiths. The Smiths were a Fabulous band but they did split up nearly 20 years ago! I still listen to them often (nearly every day) but It's time to move on from referring to the Smiths in every single Morrissey review. Morrissey cannot hold the corpse of The Smiths together after all this time and he has moved on - a long time ago! And it would be a VERY sad occassion to see the Smiths "reform".
In my opinion Morrissey delivers a very strong set of songs on the "Earls Court" CD and that's what matters. His voice is better than ever and there isn't a lot of technical "gimmicks" on the CD but why should there be? It is a strong stripped-down Live recording. Why is he seen as "Milking it"?
Every single recording artist needs to make a living and to have a public profile. Morrissey has had a fantastic "Come back" year if you like and a series of sold out live dates. Most other artists release live albums and it's OK. I often wonder Why is he getting so much stick? Some people will always criticise what he does. I believe that this is because he does things on his own terms ( I really believe that he does!) and often goes against the grain of what is expected of popular artists.
The world is FULL of Crashing bores indeed. Now Mirror: a word of advice: Piss right off! I bet they will give the new Coldplay album 10/10.
Mirror is a shameful publication for families who do their weekly shopping at Tesco's every saturday and buy their top 10 Cds in there.

I Don't get all the "Boomslang" bashing. At first I wasn't so impressed, but it has really grown on me over the years. Sure the lyrics are extremely pedestrian and in many cases terrible...but the music is excellent in many places. Listen to it for just the music once, then listen to You Are The Quarry and picture how great it would have been if Morrissey sang on Boomslang track for track.... You can just see the SMITHS when you do this...It would be hailed as a great Comeback Smiths classic. Instead we're left with two albums which sound half finished, even though both are very good.

The review is dead on. Morrissey is laughing at us losers all the way to the bank.

Anyone else ready to bail out with me? What are we 30's? 40's some of us? Posting meaningless thoughts on a lame web site? We're no different than 13 year old Brittney Spears fans. She's a product designed to make money as is "Morrissey's Comeback". I'm not spending another pence on this shite.

well, a surprise, isn't it? After the NME threesome Martin, Collins and Kelly lashed out at Moz in 1992 with the racist allegations, is it surprising he's making another attempt to become a 'famous music critic'?

After his skindeep YATQ review, this one is hardly surprising. He really gets paid for this, you know?

"He clung onto an avid but dwindling cult following."

Oh please. How often did we hear from Morrissey in those 7 long and quiet years? Not many. "Clung onto" is a great exaggeration.

Martin is definitely entitled to his own opinion; however, it seems that his review was more of an opportunity to degrade Morrissey rather than write a simple criticism about his latest release. Clearly he doesn't like Morrissey in the first place, but whether or not he's a fan of Morrissey's work is irrelevant. A review (good or bad) should contain a certain amount of appreciation and grace. Sadly, Martin does not possess such qualities.

I personally am not a fan of live LP's - Morrissey or no Morrissey. I've just never really liked listening to them. But, Martin's review pissed me off. Which in turn will make me go out and buy it even sooner than I expected to. So, once again his lyrics ring true (the reason I've been such an AVID fan for so long, mind you):

"the critics who can’t break you,
unwittingly, they make you
so don’t let the good days
of the gold discs
creep up and mug you..."

Not that I agree with the review, I will say that I prefer the set list and performance quality on the DVD. I am going to strip off the audio and make a straight CD from the DVD but they should really put out a CD version of WPTMIM so that I can hear it in my car, on my iPod, etc.

Harsh harsh harsh!
this is coming from a silly crap paper that is more interested in jordans marrage to peter andre.
how can they say that Morrissey is a chump!

So now both his heart and *coffers* are full!

God, he even spells his name on Ouija Board.

I know Moz is hitting middle age, but is he so out of breath that he cannot phrase properly anymore? Seems like he breathes every third word.

scathing at times, yes, but still great. he does after all surrender to the acknowledgement of the greatness of Morrissey- 3 stars despite having all those nasty things to say. his painting of the dark ages since 'Maladjusted' are fairly accurate and his criticisms of the present period are fair enough [even if idont agree].

its a ballsy review for an obvious Morrissey fan to write- idont mind it one bit.

A live cd which is marvellous and all you do is slag it off.

Well I am thrilled with it.

Famous when Martin, Collins and Kelly are stone cold and dead.

Does anybody actually give a flying finger fuck, what cocks like Gavin Martin think?
This is precisely the kind of reaction he had in mind with such an inflammatory piece. Let’s stir up the Moz aficionados again; they’re always good for a bite. The self satisfying massager's most likely sat at his PC at this very moment, Kleenex at the ready, congratulating him self on a job well done.
Just ignore the twat and if there's any justice he'll disappear up his own crap crevice, along with his over inflated ego and one dimensional review writing.

I really dont care for many reviews. Like the people on this site i am a huge moz/smiths fan. The review was ridiculous, and i havent even heard the cd yet! But there is no point in even listening to any reviews especially tabloid ones.

To me it appears that the reviews and their ratings are saying 'Its good enough but nothing special', a bit like every other live album you get not just from Moz/smiths but like every other band? You can never capture a band live no matter what you try.

My favourite live album is a bootleg from glasgow barrowlands a few years ago, purely because i was there!

Im sure the album is great for the fans.

However, I have been disappointed with Moz on a few things, whether he had control over them or not.

First, releasing There is a light as a single with the avereage Redondo Beach. Th e best cover moz has done recently, or ever, is No one can hold a candle to you. But it just shouldnt have been don. If i had the time i would type the reasons but im sure people feel the same.

Second, The artwork. With the exception of Let me kiss you, i have forgiven jesus and Who put the M in Manc, the artwork has been nowhere near the iconic status Moz produced for himself and the smiths in thwe past 20 years.

Thirdly, the whole re-issue, re-package phase. Album (x3 versions dvds), 4 singles (with cd1s/2s and dvds), a live single(s), live dvd, dvd re-issues(Hulmerist etc- ok not Moz's fault as he said, but you get the idea). Have i forgotten anything? My band would never do that! But then I am, like all, a hypocrite, not Morrissey and am not the greatest icon in music for the last 20 years.

Apologies for the rant.

I hope someone can be bothered to read all of it.

Just a couple of things to pick up on in this review, firstly it's STEVEN, you tosser, get yourself a better researcher. The reviewer calls Morrissey smug, well I think he can afford to be smug with the quality of material he has released in his career, wouldn't you be, if you where responsible for some of the greatest songs of the last 20 years or so. Moz is probably unique in the music world for the way he shuns publicity, making himself unpopular with the press, and the fact that he has never sold out and he always gives an honest opinion, where so many of todays artists are all cloned by the record company to smile and say the same old insincere crap, and eventually do crap reality TV shows to get publicity, where as Moz is so far above this, so the press will always give him grief. They have praised him a lot recently, but in England they build you up to knock you down. This two bit hack working as a music reviewer for a shit paper, who is probably a failed musician, or author, or both, obviously hates Morrissey, he describes Quarry as a "respectable return", that is a massive understatement, as for me it was the best album of the year and the huge sales would also say it was a lot better than "respectable". He calls the band merely "competent", then contradicts this by saying they "delivered the tunes with ruthless efficiency", not something a competent band would be capable of I'd have thought. All in all a poor review from a poor paper.

Morrissey's voice is stronger than ever; more full, rich and warm than it ever was.

Although I found a few of the lyrics on YATQ to be subpar, let's face it--Moz is probably the greatest lyricist in the history of pop music.

And yet I too find much of the music quite uninspired. Not bad, just lacking a certain something.

I think the problem here is that people are maybe getting too caught up in Johnny Marr as a solution. I don't blame them, Marr is one of my favorite musicians as well.

But what if I were to say that it might be interesting for Morrissey to work with an entirely new set of musicians? Musicians that come from a different mindset than his current ones. This may not be a cure-all, but if nothing else I think we would all be dying of real curiosity and excitement to see how it turned out.

And really, that's all I'm asking for. His current band seems really nice. They clearly know Moz's strengths and weaknesses and probably work wonderfully with him. But perhaps a little discomfort and abrasion would be good for our little Mozzer.

Or not. I don't know. What I do know is that if I ever hear another flute or clarinet solo in the middle of a song (ala "I'm Not Sorry") I will lose my lunch! :)

Is that the reviewer is obviously not aware of the special relationship Morrissey has always enjoyed with his fans - and how we have always been as strong supporters as we are now. His entire point is based on an illusion that Morrissey was a nobody that hardly anyone cared to see before his big 'comeback', and that now he is taken the attention for granted. But that is just not the way it was.

First: this disc is nothing like Beethoven was Deaf, which was probably a fluke and can never be surpassed.

I was at one of the Los Angeles shows, and the play list was better. I believe they played Hairdresser on Fire, Rubber Ring, and Every Day is Like Sunday, for example. The audience absolutely screamed "Come Armageddon Come!" This was very fitting two days after GW Bush's reelection.

Unfortunately, they also played Redondo Beach which is the only song by Morrissey or The Smiths that I can't stand.

Considering he was in front of his new "home crowd" that night, which was more than 50% Latino (people who can dance, which is probably a first for a Morrissey concert), there was an energy on stage that is lacking on this recording.

The recording unfortunately cuts out many of Morrissey quips which add more texture to Morrissey as a performer. It's unfortunate. Morrissey is very playful with his audience, and they eat it up.

As for the band, Deano was simply on fire in Los Angeles. And Boz had a look on his face that I have never seen before. I was like, "I can't believe I'm on stage playing guitar for Morrissey!" They clearly love Morrissey, his lyrics, his voice, and their music.

People who say artists are uninspired need to get off their ass and inspire me.

That night in Los Angeles was one of the best experiences of my life. Live at Earls Court is a good reminder of that night, and I don't want my $9.99 back from iTunes or Morrissey.

I'd much rather give my money to Morrissey, who is against animal oppression and speaks his mind, than pay my taxes to GW Bush and Tony Blair who have no morality or conscience whatsoever.

Shoplifters of the world unite!

Did any one else notice that he said "when her iPod started to melt?" in Bigmouth? Like many artists, I think Morrissey owes a lot to Apple for his comeback.

Praise to both Apple and Morrissey.

"A little humility would have been nice. But only a fool or a hopeless romantic would expect that sort of thing from The Mozfather."

An intelligent review would have been nice. But only a fool or a hopeless romantic would expect that sort of thing from The Mirror.

Come back to Philadelphia, I want to see you again!

Well my local paper the Nottingham Evening post gave the Earls court CD 3 and a half stars out of 5 and gave the dvd 4 stars out of 5.
That was nice of them.

(Oops! involuntary publicity for REM album! )

I must be the only person in the world who giggles when reading Gavin.
I just love the melodramatic tone of the article.

"Morrissey's past flashed before him", (like, when you're about to have a big car accident)
... yet there was no future in sight" (Ha! No, there was just a Californian ten ton truck, probably)
"Record companies shied away from his famously unpredictable temperament" (here you picture tiny record company people scampering away from a gigantic and God-like Morrissey throwing fireballs)
"Something needed to change- and urgently."
(Picture Morrissey and Gavin tapping their feet impatiently)
"Morrissey proceded to milk it, ...and it quickly curdled" (here a cow glares at Morrissey when seeing the wasted milk; Morrissey looks back at it more or less apologetically)
"The overbearing chump" (Picture a sumo with a chimpanzee's head)
"in the oppressive surrounds": (as when stuck in an elevator)
"a seasoned man" (picture the sumo-chimp now stuffed with garlic)
"You can't blame a man for scooping the jackpot when his luck changes" (Morrissey at the Black Jack table in a Las Vegas casino, some dumb blonde clapping and jumping excitedly by his side)
"the competent but artless band deliver the tunes with ruthless efficiency" (picture band in butchers' aprons, attacking Smiths songs with machetes)
"But only a fool or a hopeless romantic would expect that sort of thing from the Mozfather." (Shaggy and somebody from Duran Duran cry bitterly as larger-than-life Marlon Morrissey majestically wipes his soles on them.)

Well, Gavin, it all sounds so exciting when *you* describe it,... you almost make me want to get the DVD!!!

What I really don't understand is the always and forever ongoing fuzz about Morrisseys band 'theyre clumsy, they sound like amateurs, theyre not Johnny Marr.' Excuse me, but why is it that certain music critics don't get the fact that it's a very, very clever move of Morrissey to work with this band? No, they're not Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke or poor old Mike Joyce with the big ears, but Morrissey doesn't need them. Having his recent band proves that he doens't need smart and brilliant musicians - he just needs himself. His band might not be the technically best musicians, but it's not about technique - it's about soul. Morrissey's not the technically best singer either, but he's got soul, and unlike Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera and freaking Brian McFadden he doesn't sing the songs to death...

While I appreciate Mozzer striking while the iron is hot, per se, I must say I was really disappointed in the CD and my God that horrible t shirt that came to my door. The man pictured on it doesn't even look like Moz, and it's a thrown together photo. Why couldn't he have tried for something a little more dignified? I haven't listened to the CD yet ( one person on the site called it "Bob Hope Entertaining The Troops at a uso show") and I'm sorry dear Moz, I love you, but it's the truth. YATQ is brilliant; why not just rest on that? Everything else is superfluous.

it at number 11. sorry, I know this isn't releated to the thread!
John

Hmm, this Gavin's name sounds familiar. Ah yes, he was one of the swine who tried crucifying Morrissey as a "racist" after "Your Arsenal" came out. Ever since, he trashed everything Morrissey did in his solo career.

Then he grudgingly wrote a semi-positive review of "You Are The Quarry," making sure to inform us that while old fans will be happy he's back he certainly won't be getting many new fans.

It must be upsetting to Gavin that Morrissey remains on top, having weathered it all. So now when Morrissey releases a live album, suddenly anyone who releases a live album is just being "greedy." Perhaps you can make a greed argument over all the various formats of singles he's put out in the past 12 months, but a 12 dollar live album does not seem like a rip-off to me.

Gavin writes:
"Acknowledged by all and sundry as a key influence, Morrissey was welcomed both by old fans and a new generation. Quarry became the biggest-selling album of his career and, as a live performer, Morrissey's asking price had never been higher."

Sorry you called it wrong, Gavin. Looks like he did find some new fans, to your chagrin. But that's no reason to continue your bullshit attacks. Who the hell attacks a live album based on, in part, your personal problems with the VENUE ("the opressive Earl's Court")? What's THAT about? What the fuck do I care? I wasn't there; I'm just listening to the CD. Morrissey wasn't the freaking architect of the Earl's Court, you dope.

And it seems far too easy for a reviewer to base the bulk of his attacks around calling the artist "greedy," given that one does have to ask for money in exchange for an album. That's how the capitalist system works, and the album is not overpriced. Gavin's problem is that Morrissey's comeback was a complete and toal success, and it's ery telling that the bulk of his review has little to say about the MUSIC. This journalist is evil and hellbent on attacking Morrissey the person, as if he can read into his heart.

Here's my theory on why Morrissey released the live album. HE's very happy to be back from a 7 year absence, and he was overjoyed at how people embraced him with open arms and bought up so many concert tickets. Feeling fantastic about his year, he decided to document the tour with a DVD of the first concert and a live album of the last.

What can be wrong with this?

And how is Morrissey a "chump"???? That was a completely gratuitous attack, not backed up by anything.....

It's about the music, duh....

Seems like the person from the Daily Mirror newspaper,has a grudge about Morrisey,as well as bieng a terribly well paid,journalist,i disagree with what you said..How can you say Morriseys trading on his past,his latest album,has shown how,he has grown and developed as a person and performer..Yeah went to Earls Court,great set and performance,great audience..The live version sounds fine,live versions always bit different but think the mood of concert and the performance of some great tracks,well worth buying...Morriseys ten times more concious of the national mood.at present,than the Mirror...

This review isnt that bad. It gives Moz 3 stars out of 5, which means very good at the bottom of the reviews page. On the review of the cd it also has big red lettering saying 'TRY IT'.
Three stars out of five aint bad, even if the jornalist does hate Morrissey.