...and a very decent review.

Moz needs to get a bigger suit..he looks..mm..plumpy.

i might be wrong, but ever since Moz stopped giving exclusive interviews to Q, they have slated him. interview issues: your arsenal, vauxhall, southpaw. all got 4 stars. non-interview issues: maladjusted (2 stars), quarry (2 stars), ringleader (3 stars). I get the impression this guy was paid to make as many negative points about a good album as possible.
Enjoy your paycheck.

Like Pope would announce, he finally finds Satan attractive.
This man was againts superficiality, flesh and sex with more vigort than mother Teresa.

Strait fans may find homo flesh theme unattractive.

Gay fans may find it also so, a bit same way as young girls don't want to hear about their idols love life or he's in love with 'another'.

Im gonna send that fucker, Doyle, my copy of his review in Q, wrapped in my pitbulls week old shit. 3 out of 5, I think NOT!!!

I really don't think I like the fact that morrissey has removed the mystery over his sexuality. Not all of us want to hear him croon on about nasty butt-sex. I prefer the more ambiguous lyrics.
Prude? Maybe. But time will tell whether I'm right or not.

You Have Killed Me is nothing like EDILS.

This invalidates the rest of the review.

It reminds me of a review of Your Arsenal where the reviewer stated that We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful: "was 'Boys Don't Cry'".

The only person whose opinion matters is yours.

I have frequently read opinions stated as fact with which I entirely disagree. For example: the stand out track on SHWC is Death of a Disco Dancer (and one writer, Mick Meddle, compared it to Pink Floyd -!- when the riff is blatantly a nod to Dear Prudence, if anything); Never Had No One Ever referred to as filler by Johnny Rogan(I think there is no filler on any Smiths album, or, indeed, any Morrissey album - now there's something to disagree with, and the lyric is understood by everyone who had to wait to lose their virginity); Maladjusted and Southpaw are poor albums (I love them both). I'm sure you could come up with similar statements which get you annoyed.

Ignore what the reviewers write. Different things appeal to different people (I think that The Teachers Are Afraid of The Pupils is epic and my favourite Smiths song is That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore).

One thing I do know for sure - the Q review was very poor and written by someone who clearly - CLEARLY - does not understand or know a great deal about Morrissey. To fall back on the Morrissey/Sex/Ooh, Is It A Mystery? is so banal and lazy. He should check the back issues of Q - in 1992 they did an interview with him in which Morrissey talked about his sexual urges and photographed him looking at hardcore pornography videos in Sex shop window.

the only comment made that is flatly ridiculous is the comparison of "You Have Killed Me" to "Everyday Is Like Sunday"- that is so unimaginably off it defies all explanation.

while this comment does certainly cast doubt upon the accuracy of other comparison's made to songs ihav yet to hear ("... 'Life Is A Pigsty'.... bearing the influences of John Barry, Bowie, 'Five Years' and Asccociates", "'I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero'... recalls Roy Orbison", and descriptions of "The Youngest Was The Most Loved" and "The Father Who Must Be Killed"), the rest of the commentary is fair enough.

describing 'You Are The Quarry' as "A solid, if unspectacular effort" is tough, but fair.

in referring to the "run of increasingly dreary albums he churned out in the mid-90's" ican only assume he's referring to 'Southpaw Grammar' and 'Maladjusted', which is hardly much of a run and not exactly mid-90's ('Maladjusted' having been released in Aug'97 which id say shades it to late 90's with Morrissey's greates record, 94's 'Vauxhall And I', and 'Southpaw...' being his mid-90's albums), but they are two records that, for right or for wrong (wrong, in my opinion), hav been widely panned in the realm of music criticism. also, sayin that '...Quarry' put an end to that streak ithink is a little inaccurate as, for one, idont believe there was sucha streak, and two, idont think '...Quarry' is necessarily a better, or significantly better record than 'Southpaw...' or 'Maladjusted'- but whatever.

refering to the "novelty" of Moz's comeback is certainly fair and very true. '...Quarry' was embraced far more readily and enthusiacticly becos it was the first Moz album in 7years and it was significantly over-praised in 2004. not sayin that it was a bad album and didnt deserve much of the credit that it recieved, but it wasnt all of what it was made out to be (fair enough though since criticism of Moz had been overly harsh for the past decade without reason).

the idea that "the most significant development" is the record's sexuality is a little trite, but thats his opinion and its reasonable enough. imean, its very boring to simply dwell on that one aspect and it makes the review far less informative that it otherwise could be, but what can you do?

really, it all comes down to expectations and frankly this is the sort of review is what iexpect. idont go into a review expecting to be wowed with new and brilliant insights or impressive and entertaining wit everytime out. this review is basically par for the course and those who are disappointed simply hav to high an expectation of music journalists. when yure writing reviews all the time- many times on records you dont necessarily care about- you juste cant expect every review to be terribly inspired.

and of course im likely to end up personally disagreeing with a rating of 3/5, but if thats as bad as it gets then it bodes well.

Like anyone trusts Q magazine anyway. I mean, they're still doing articles on fucking Queen. C'mon, I thought we were all old enough to not have to pretend that this kind of thing matters anymore. What was it that Elvis Costello said about music writing: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." That's it exactly. Q Magazine. Give me a break. I'd trust a more thorough review from Seventeen. Wankers.

I'm afraid it sounds a credible review in terms of the standard of the work. I'v heard three tracks from the album and am not bowled over.

- 'You have killed me' is hummable but nothing special. It's quite good. There's something a little dull about it musically.

- 'I will see you...' is just dreary and tuneless with a clumsy bit of Morrissey on politics. The line 'And if the USA doesn't bomb you' actually runs in really well, in terms of delivery, and he can sing whatever he likes if he does it with enough panache and the right delivery, but I think he is just not as adept at it nowadays. His vocal melodies are often tuneless but predictable, and his voice seems weaker and more strained than in the mid 90s. It makes his lyrics sound ponderous and often banal.

'Dear God Please Help Me' - Almost lovely - a restrained but good melody, some nice atmosphere, a pretty fine vocal melody, and then...

Morrissey singing "there are explosive kegs between my legs."

I'm sorry but that is vandalism of a very promising song. It is truly ridiculous and clumsy, and is the kind of couplet Bernard Manning, Chas and Dave and Roy Chubby Brown would perhaps turn their noses up at. It little matters whether the song implies Morrissey is gay or straight, it matters that he manages to destroy the atmosphere by such a plummet into bathos.

Elsewhere in the song he makes sex, hetero or homo, sound as erotic as a visit to the dentist. I was reminded of the Alan Partridge episode when he somehow manages to get a woman into bed and gives it the most grimly prosaic running commentary - "Right, I'm touching your breast now. Oh yes, that's it, that's first class." etc.

It's the erotic equivalent of being made to look at someone's holiday slides.

I fear for the album, and hope it has at least a couple of crackers like YATQ. None of those three songs quite work, in my opinion. I wish they did.

Regards,
Robert.

how can you say that when you haven't even heard the new album? You're the one who constantly whines and winges about the "good old days" of YA and VAI. I know your style.

You haven't heard the album - which was described as his best ever by morley - and "extraordinary" by NME and you're already - before you've heard it even once- whining about Jesse Tobias. Are you fickle? It's just the silliest thing I've ever read. Wait 2 months, then your opinion might have some validity.

broken

Morrissey isn't interested in virtuosos. He likes his rock band. Why don't you go off and listen to some Eric Clapton as that seems to be what you're after?
Still, you're not interested in hearing the actual music are you? Just pontificating before you've even heard it.