still looking for that stand out song from this lp...

where is the song? i can't hear it. why is that link a subtitle file? am i missing something? like a brain?

If that's supposedly the 'standout track' from ROTT I'm suddenly very worried. I mean it was 'OK' but from everything I've read that was supposed to be the 'Trouble Loves Me' of the album in as much as it was supposed to be (from reviews thus far) the definitive song.

Close but no cigar. It was good but definitive by Moz's lofty standards?

Nup.

Go back to the start, do not pass go, do not collect 200. Your 'get out of jail' card has been used.

that was supposed to be moz's 'paranoid android'???...plz tell me noooooooooooo

Great! Morrissey's Space Oddity more than Paranoid Android, surely.
I will go down great live, too.

Finally managed to listen to it; it's rather dark, that intro would fit quite well on the closing credits of a horror film. Not sure about the key changes, or the metaphor, but then nobody's ever incorporated the word pigsty into a song as far as I can remember.
I'm thinking that the next time I go home and my mum complains that 'the house is a pigsty' I can say 'don't worry mum, Morrissey's life is the same, but he gets by'.
What I was pleasantly surprised about was the ending. A few reviewers had mentioned that line about 'even now in the final hours of my life I'm falling in love again' and I thought it sounded a bit clunky. But the way he fits it to the music and with the preceding line is brilliant. Viva poetry.

It's really brilliant, everywhere, thank you moz for the fine taste you have. Listen, closely, you picky moz fans, and something devine will come in to your little ears.

Don't know how you guys can really make an opinion with the horrendous quality of the stream that I got. Clearly that tune is about the production, it starts off stripped back but as it goes on gets quite jam-packed, which just sounds like fuzz through that stream.

I tried to fill in the blanks, and trusting Visconte's production I'm pretty sure it'll be great. It does sound quite Radiohead, my mate likened it to Exit Music (For a Film), and he definately has a point. No bad thing, though.

There is no melody, there is no quirkiness, there is no need for a "Southpaw" part 2. As the great man says himself...."Dear God please help me".

Cant wait to hear this from a CD! The production sounds fantastic! Great sounding Moz album track!
Gave me shivers down the spine - always a good sign!

Just as You Have Killed Me left me uming and ahing, this does too a little, although the quality of the stream doesn't help.

I'm sure if I could hear it without the cotton wool wrapped tightly round, the intro would make sense whereas at the moment it really feels like an ABC, clearly three part song, of which the C part is very much my favourite but that is obviously the climax and has the most crooning from Moz.

The big build up just feels too hampered, contrived and bland without a more varied vocal but again I think that is the stream taking away so much from that part of it.

For those of us who really really enjoy a good slap your thigh sing along to Boy Racer and More you ignore me, this is something utterly else, however, just like YHKM I'm sure it will start to nag at me, almost immediately, like a petulant child until I concede that I actually do like it.

I can't wait to hear Pigsty properly. It sounds like hope and despair are fighting it out in an abstract, glam sort of a landscape.

The vocals are heartwrenching.

I was hoping the song would be sung to the tune of "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane...

"Life is a Pigsty...and i want to roll in it all night long..."

oink oink oink oink

its by far the best off the four so far..

(if anyone cares) i've been reserved in my opinion so far, but this simply exudes style. menacing, brooding and graceful, it makes me proud of the dear old chap.

some of the arrangement reminds me of the bewley brothers or quicksand. perhaps ken scott popped in for a grappa during mixdown.

simply quality.

didn't really like the song to be honest. after hearing 4 songs off the album, i'm not all that impressed.

Is anyone in the happy position of being able to post the words of the song for us please?

After one listen I am already amazed by this song. It is nothing short of brilliant. All the true Morrissey fans will absolutely love this.

To those of you that haven't heard it, you will definitely fall in love with it. To those of you that want Morrissey to make another Vauxhall, this is the closest song from the new album to that.

The beginning of the song sounded like something from the Durutti Column, but then slowly picked up. It is an incredible epic and I hope it gets played live.

I truly am speechless.

i don't think this is whyte's best co-write, but it is certainly up there with the best of them

A masterpiece.

please stop wanting a YATQ part 2...i beleive that morrisey made that album to remind people he was till alive and that he is very much an influence to the modern rock scene....after that mediorcre album he has gone back to what he knows how to do best which is to work wiht a great producer and make a great record that will please him and his fans who have stuck wiht him through thick and thin...YATQ only pleases the crying emo boys and their fat hairy girlfriends....ROTT will please us all

"Life Is a Pigsty"? Does nobody else cringe hearing Morrissey work up endless variations on this apparently profound revelation? What in the world is going on in those studio catacombs...? Economy, lyric and melody have burrowed their way out into the sunshine and left our hero behind, leaving a crippled incoherent half-song behind and Visconti called in for triage...

I can imagine band and producer all glancing at each other sheepishly wondering, "Is this really it?" Or Alain Whyte getting a look at the final lyric sheet and whispering, "Oh no...." The track arrives to a suitably epic finale, but wading through bland ambient disco and that painful middle are a high price to pay. And why, pray tell, are Moz's vocals mixed into your lap with the band somewhere down the street...?

My only mistake is (I was) hoping...and I've always been true to you.

I don't like Morrissey's bass player - his playing is so leaden. He was really found out in the recording of "How Soon Is Now?" on "Live at Earl's Court".

I hope he isn't given such a prominent role in the rest of the album as he is at the beginning of this song.

The Smiths eschewed synthesizers because Morrissey was of the opinion that they were a sympton of creative laziness. The poor use of synths on some of his songs on his last album was a real low, although the worst offender was the production - the ending of "I Have Forgiven Jeff" and "The World Is Full of Smashing Whores" are truly ghastly. Hope neither of these materialise on the new album.

"I still maintain..."

Well, okay, repetition is a perfectly valid poetic device - if it's in the same song.

I love the lyric at the end of this song. Perfect Morrissey - "I'm falling in love again". I can't think of another singer who sings with such honesty.

"Falling in love again
Never wanted to,
Fall in love with you ..."

Other singers perform, Morrissey reveals. Or something - what is it that he does? I'm not sure "reveals" is the right word.

I really don't like the title.

"The Headmaster Ritual" is a great title -"Belligerent Ghouls Run Manchester Schools" would have been an awful title and ruined the impact of the line.I suppose I don't mind the line "Life is a pigsty", I could even quite like it, but I think it loses its impact when used as a title.

How about "I'm Falling In Love Again"?

I look forward to hearing this on a proper hi-fi.

Talking of which, I recently set up my old turntable in my 10-year-old son's room (after it had been idle for about ten years), and, a few days into exploring my collection, he came rushing in to tell me that U2 had ripped off "The Back of Love" in "In God's Country" and that Bono was trying to sound like Ian McCullough. (He has The Joshua Tree on CD, hence the comparison, I never bought it as I only ever listened to The Smiths or the blues at the time).

He has revised his opinion of 1980s U2. One has to learn these things for oneself.

This is also irrelevant.

By the way - hello to goinghome and wit2wit; hope you're both well and are having a happy new year. I always look out for your posts.

I thought it was quite tedious on a first listen, but it seemed to improve on a second try, and I was forgetting that it would sound tinny through my PC speakers. It'll sound awesome live. Did anyone else notice a sort of Joy Division influence in there (think the slower tracks on 'Closer'), or was it just me? It usually is.

It took three listens, but i am starting to love the track.It will sound better when listened to within the context of the album,and for all of you doubters,think back to previous albums,how many times did you listen to many of the tracks before you grew to love them?

I think this has early Smiths overtones with modern production and I LOVE IT!!!!!
I think some people may have a problem with the music being on an equal footing with the voice but that, to me, is what made The Smiths better than a lot of Moz's solo stuff.

but this song a truly fantastic gem.

Grand. Absolutely. He easily could have distributed this song as the whole album. It's plenty.

truly a haunting melody from the moz man brilliant again i love it the new album looks to be a true great well done morrissey

I just heard a recording of Morrissey farting. It's a true masterpiece.