1. Something is squeezing my skull.
Nothing much to say here. You know this one already. A horde of thorny guitars and aggressive drums. Typical Finn production, but not too polished. The drum inferno towards the end makes the song feel like a distant cousin to The Smiths ”London”. The song itself is hardly one of Mozzers strongest, but the sound is good.

2. Mama lay softly on the riverbed.
You know this one already. The song remains true to the live version we’ve all heard by now. Heavy marching drums and fairytale keyboards. And another bitter lyric about ”pigs in grey suits” and "uncivil servants” that I personally think we’ve heard one too many times before. But his singing here is absolutely fantastic. Great vocal.

3. Black cloud.
Starts of with some quite strings and sampled voices. The tone of the song made me think a bit of some forgotten spaghetti western from the seventies. Then the heavy drums (Matt Walker is the real star on this album, really), thorny guitars and heavy feedback kicks in and the song changes direction. A passionate and quite aggressive vocal from Morrissey and he sings about how ”there nothing I can do to make you mine”. The melody felt a bit flat, but it might grow on you…

4. I’m throwing my arms around Paris
You know this one too. Quite similar to the live version you’ve heard. Synthetic strings and a nice clarinet break. An ok song (but a weak choice for a first single, I think), with a clean production that sounds a bit like The Smiths circa 1986.

5. All you need is me.
You know this one too. Nothing new too add here.

6. When I last spoke to Carol
Starts of with a spanish guitar figure and a flamenco beat. Add some whistled bits that made med think about some mad cross breed between ”The good, the bad and the ugly” and ”Why don’t you find out for yourself”.
Then comes some latin brass that sounds plastic and a bit out of place, and the whole spanish theme falls a bit on the cliché side.
”Antonio Banderas-indie”, my friend said of this one. Quite true…

7. That’s how people grow up.
You know this one as well, and you either like it or you loathe it. Personally I think this is Morrisseys weakest single since 1991 and that the album could have done without it.

8. One day goodbye will be farewell
Another live favourite. The tempo is a bit slower than the live version we’re used to. And the trumpet intro that Mikey used to play is axed altogether. A good song and a passionate vocal from Morrissey.

9. It’s not your birthday anymore
Starts of real quiet with just a drum machine and gentle guitar picking. Morrisseys vocal here is astonishing. He croons it like Sinatra and the strength of his delivery is very impressing. The chorus is a real killer too, almost like it was made to be played to giant audiences at football stadiums. It’s huge, it’s beautiful, it’s a real anthem. Beautiful.
And the explosive kegs between Morrisseys legs make a return here:
”All the gifts that they gave you / Can’t compare in any way / To the love I give / Right here, right now – on the floor”.

10. You were good in your time
Another highlight. Moz plays the role as the teary eyed crooner to perfection here. A beautiful, gentle ballad with the feeling of late nights, empty bars and a fog of cigarette smoke. The synthetic strings ruin the sound a bit, but Morrisseys vocal is amazing here. The song ends in a drawn out ending full of electronic effects and voice samples (a bit like the weird middle section of ”Black-eyed Susan”).

11. Sorry doesn’t help
A great rocking pop song that reminds a bit of ”Reader meet author” and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ”Southpaw grammar”. The chorus is classic Moz at it’s best. A strong song with a great hook.

11. I’m OK by myself
Another one that wouldn’t have sounded at all out of place on ”Southpaw grammar”. A great, anthemic song with loads of screaming guitars and a beutiful, funny lyric from Moz.
”Then came an arm around my shoulder / Well, surely, the hand contains a revolver”, he sings.
The song ends with a massive guitar and drum inferno while Mozzer screams through a distorted microphone. It’s may look weird in print, but the result is a very, very special and wonderful song.

General impression:

I must admit I was a little bit disappointed. It’s not a bad album. It’s just not, well, a great album. The real downer was that half of the songs felt old already, I mean some of them has been played live since 2007.
And, as I thought was the case with ”Quarry”: It doesn’t feel like an album as such. More a collection of songs. Nothing wrong with that, but I do miss the thread, the theme, the cohesiveness. Think what you will about ”Ringleader”, but it did feel like and album, a whole (something that I personally prefer).
But then again: We got to hear the album in it’s entirety only once (and I was taking notes throughout).