a concoction of ecstacy, cocaine, LSD, methanphetamine in tapioca tea has been a real popular beverage among many of the writers at New Music Express.

why i even bother with something from NME, only God knows.

I've read the review and it is embarrassing that a journalist could be allowed to publish such a fawning biased review.
I like the song itself but the choice of words used to make it single of the week was worthy of the etchings on the side of a my schoolbag circa 1984. A time when i had lyrics and The words "THE SMITHS" emblasoned all over it.
Comparing Morrissey to eminem in her fever i suppose is flattery ~ thank you~ but how the hell could this shite be published. This is the main reason why i base my purchases on my ears and not in the reviews at the NME>

what are the folks over at NME on?? first they place Eminem at #8 for most influential and The Smiths at #10... and now they call Eminem this generations Morrissey??! We don't need a Moz for THIS generation, we already have one ...the one and only...
Mr. Steven Patrick Morrissey

I don't seem any mention of Morrissey in the Stan single review at www.nme.com/NME/External/Reviews/Reviews_Story/0,1069,6428,00.html

what is this reviewer smoking?? to proclaim that hack to be this gen's Moz leads me to assume he knows nothing about Morrissey or what's moz's body of work is about.

and that "most influential" ranking of Eminem as #8...what rubbish! after only a couple of albums, who's he had time to be influential on? puh-leeze!

it's all flavor of the month crap, and another reason i never bothered to even look at the cover of an issue of NME.

-anonymous malonine

Because I have no idea how else he could be worthy of such "honorable mentions" First he's listed with Bands such as the beatles and smiths On a top 10 list. Now What is wrong with that picture? Not even Nirvana (who i hate btw) Were listed, I'd much rather see them put as an influential band. I mean who did eminem influence? Maybe some drunk white guy who wants to be a rapper and be filthy rich for writing songs about beating his wife while his kid watches. Next Morrissey? Oh yes ..What a comparison. Whoever wrote that is Brilliant.

The English have this peculiar thing for "renegade" music artists from the United States. Recently, the NME proclaimed the Wu-Tang Clan as the best rap band ever and Madonna tickets have sold for $1000 a pop.

Go back in the pages of NME and you will find entire issues devoted to such dangerous anti-establishment figures as Ice Cube (movies: "Leprechaun 5", "Frankenpenis") and Tone Loc (voice-over for motor oil and toilet paper ads).

So, just hike up your undies and spit on the corporate dollar as they shovel them at you. You too can be big in England.

i see the comparison.............
morrissey .....y'know that other white rapper.
i like all the songs morrissey wriiten about toking guns, beating people up, about his shared drug addiction, but most of all the angst mozz conveys on his records........NOT.....
I didnt realise how bad the NME have become, i assume the reviewer of the single stan is around 20 and has no genre whatsoever
of how big the smiths actually were.
the 10 th ranking means nothing now eminem or slim doggy-dog has an 8 th placing!!!
i could go on and on but mozz wrote and still writes intelligent, sensitive, funny, poignant, thought-provoking material.......where as m+m is a rappers joke.
"the rain falls hard on a hum-drum town, this town has dragged me down"...mozz
"my girlfriends a hoe, but she aint no bitch"...........mm
oh the connection is undenyably prolific...in fact the NME better check both birth records the pair of them may be brothers .....lol..lol..lol

I reckon the NME has definitely lost it!
It's like saying that I dunno, Oasis were the Iron Maiden of the 90s...what are they on about????
Eminem is just a squallid, homophobic bastard.
In fairness to hime, I have to say that his message merely reflects the times we live into.
Please, leave MOrrissey alone...if you have to compare him to someone...I can see the point with Suede, when they first started, I might see Jarvis...but Eminem. Please!

Claude from BIrmingham, UK

I don't see how anyone in their right mind could ever compare Morrissey to Eminem...I just makes absolutely no sense to me. And Eminem being more influential than The Smiths, no right minded soul would ever proclaim such a preposterous thing. If it is really true that Eminem influenced this world more than The Smiths I have serious doubts about wanting to live in it anymore. Besides Eminem can easily be classified as hip hop or rap, whereas Morrissey and The Smiths actually did/do original sounding music. Just for that fact alone The Smiths should have placed above Eminem. But Oh well, this just strengthens my disdain for the music media.

Perhaps in the sense that now many middle class middle England/USA teenage boys think thay can become the next white trashy rap hero?

And the Smiths and Moz, well they were/are influential but so subtley because any major homage just sounds like Gene or Suede.

But I don't think this is quite the point NME were making! I like 'Stan' but it is no way Moz-esque is it?

Morrissey is on the other end of the spectrum from Eminem. In the song "Stan", the only thing bareable is the sampling from Dido's "Thank You." While writing a song about a crazed, obsessive fan may be noteworthy for the times, it cannot come into comparison with any of Morrissey's sincere, lyrically-genius songs which convey much more than an instant of disillusionment (more one of a lifetime of disillusionment).

NME has become a simple magazine for simple people, or perhaps they just want to start controversy among the fans of Morrissey!

Dear Jim,

I was the next Morrissey.

sincerly,

Vanilla Ice

a while ago i said on this very site that i thought eminem and morrissey were similar.....therefore it's rather insightful of an nme journalist to have picked up on it! i can see why most of you are amazed.......but if you look beyond the white rapper going on about bitches and ho's, etc, they are both controversial, (ok, not that strange)....in the context of what the journalist was saying about 'stan' it's easier to see. stan is eminem acknowledging that many fans look to music to escape from their empty lives and thus they can become obsessed with their musical idols.....morrissey also knew that he was an icon for the dissatisfied and wrote about this directly in 'rubber ring' where he talks directly to smiths fans. both men express dissatisfaction and anger with the musical scene (i'm talking about morrissey in the days of the smiths), and both are 'angry young men' who take every opportunity to diss their peers verbally and very publically, practically alienating themselves from the current music scene, - 'hang the dj' and 'the real slim shady' anyone? both songs express vitriol at the players in the music scene.....steve wright in the smiths number, and the current darlings of the pop world in eminem's song. stan is a beautiful song where eminem does what no other pop star of this generation, (where everyone just keeps a goddamn smile plastered on their face and dances like a loon constantly,) would do, and actually acknowledges the darker side of fandom. it explores the mundanity of life as a normal person, and as a music fan, which moz was also quick to acknowledge. the bit that dido sings.....
my tea has gone cold, i wonder why,
i got out of bed at all,
the morning rain clouds up my window,
and i can't see out.
even if i could it'd all be gray,
got your picture on my wall,
it reminds me that it's not so bad,
it's not so bad.

that, expressed maybe slightly more eloquently, could practically BE a smiths song! i'm sure morrissey would agree that the lines above would sum up his miserable childhood, which as we all know, was a great catalyst and continual subject for smiths songs. i think it's just quite sad that all of you have been so quick to deny any connection.....i'm not actually a huge fan of eminem, but i don't deny that there are musical players right now who could take morrissey's place! putting the man on a pedestal just means that fans get snobby and automatically have a go at anyone who dares compare anyone to moz. aren't any of you willing to recognise common ground?

If Eminem is the new Morrissey then I am the Queen of England.
The comparison is without credence. Whereas in Mozzer's music his humanity, irony and humour shine through Eminem is about as subtle as a flying hippopotumus! The latter's lyrics betray him as a misogynistic, homophobic twat. OK so there are those who say that lyrics advocating 'smacking your bitch up' and 'hating fags'should not be taken seriously but they are nastily provocative.
Give me Morrissey's music any day.

If you are looking for a real new Morrissey, Look at Elliott Smith or (My actual favorite) Joseph Arthur. They are much more clever an poetic than Eminem.

Oh god yeah-I'm amazed no ones spotted the comparison sooner! I mean, ok so some people might have heard of Morrisseys outstanding(but sadly, not particularly well known) music, both with the Smiths and in his own rite, but of course he is notorious for being a white rapper who lives in a trailer park and beats up his wife (while his kid watches) before going out for some drive-by shootings.............

I'm sorry, but what a load of crap-I think the people at NME should spend less time smoking the Happy Grass and more time listening to music.

I'm sorry but the Great Moz and Eminem are in no way similar. At least Morrissey has interesting and funny lyrics, despite the heavy melodramatic overtones. Eminem raps about the same thing over and over. Do we really have to hear about him inflicting harm on his wife again? Poor girl...I feel sorry for her. And I also feel sorry for the readers of NME who had to actually read about such a crazy comparison. Eminem will be done in about another year or so,but Moz's legacy will live on!

Iam so sick of hearing rappers getting compared to Steven Morrissey,theres other white artists who sing and write lyrics that could be compared for instance, Chris Isaac. Its like a sickening new trend to have some kind of mass awakening to rap,And those who like rap open there eyes to rock...So maybe everyone can get along and Respect each other.Thats more money for the record
companies,And maybe we can form many more Limp Bizkits,the point is Do you think Morrissey and Enimem could even stand to be in the same room together? I personally dont think so.

OK, obviously saying that Eminem is the new Morrissey is going to annoy a lot of people, but I can see (in a way) what the writer was getting at. Basically, in Eminem's songs (and 'Stan' in particular) there are some themes not a million miles away from Morrissey/Smiths songs like despair, death, suicide, loneliness. Of course, they handle them differently, but this doesn't mean that if you like one you have to object to the other.
Then there's the matter of singing controversial songs in character (I'm thinking of '...International Playboys' here)...
It seems that people are getting mixed up with the difference between saying 'Eminem is an effective and articulate social commentator, just like Morrissey' and 'Eminem is as good as Morrissey and EXACTLY LIKE HIM'.
As for the influential artists thing, I do think Eminem was too high, as I would consider other rap artists more influential, but then this was just people's opinions, so there you go.