Ringleader

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Mozfeedback89

Mozfeedback89
Hey guys!! New to the forum..although I've been a lurker the last couple of months haha. Got re-obsessed with the smiths and morrissey over the summer-which brought me to this forum. Was just wondering, what's the general consensus on the "ringleader" album? Cause I feel like most people think it's one of his worst. Well upon rediscovering morrissey I happen to think it's one of his BEST even over quarry (although not as good as vauxhall OFCOURSE). Just had some time to kill and wanted to see if this opinion is shared.
 
I really do like the album when I'm alone or in a place when I can really concentrate on the lyrics and let the music go.
Such as Life as pigsty when I'm upset is really a good song.
 
I like it! It's not Vauxhall but I think it's a good album. The Rome era was interesting- he was in love and in a beautiful City and that comes out in the lyrics. Pigsty is one of my all time favourites.


Sadly I cannot find ROTT on vinyl, like Quarry.
 
i like the songs but the production mastering make it almost unlistenable for me
 
Anonymous said:
i like the songs but the production mastering make it almost unlistenable for me
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It really is bad. Sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. A perfect example is "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", a song I personally love. But when the police sirens at the beginning end, you expect the song proper to come belting in like a bat out of hell, like it does in concert. Instead, on the album it wimpers in like a shy mouse.

The singles sound a bit better on the Greatest Hits compilation, but not much so.
 
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Its a very good album, the production is good, but I listen to a wide range of music,so I am used to hearing songs with no production values to top end stuff.
 
For me, Ringleader is far and away the best Morrissey album this century and I think it's only just pipped by Vauxhall as his best solo album overall. The songs are great, the arrangements are great and it hangs together brilliantly as an album. I can't understand why some people seem to think it has "poor production" or "sounds terrible". Maybe there are some incredibly bad pressings out there. Maybe some Morrissey fans are aware that he doesn't like Tony Visconti anymore, so therefore he must be a bad producer, whatever the objective facts may be. Maybe we're living in an age where if it's not sampled and Pro Toolsed to a crisp then people just can't cope. Those are all the explanations I can think of.

Mind you, I would criticise Visconti for hiring a string section for one song and then using synthesised strings elsewhere where the real thing would have been so much better.
 
Anonymous said:
I can't understand why some people seem to think it has "poor production" or "sounds terrible". Maybe there are some incredibly bad pressings out there. Maybe some Morrissey fans are aware that he doesn't like Tony Visconti anymore, so therefore he must be a bad producer, whatever the objective facts may be. Maybe we're living in an age where if it's not sampled and Pro Toolsed to a crisp then people just can't cope. Those are all the explanations I can think.
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Quite the opposite. Of all his releases, it's the biggest victim of 'modern' rock production - from an audio engineering perspective, I believe the technical term is 'slammed to f***'. For the one thing, it's the loudest of his releases, as [URL="http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/dr?artist=Morrissey]this chart[/URL] shows. If you want to get specific, I think the problem is that whoever mastered it (or possibly even Visconti in the mix) used an SSL-based buss compressor a little too hard, and it drove the midrange way too loud. The lack of low end is particularly frustrating.
 
@anonymous completely agree. When his first came out in 06 I was disappointed. Honestly I myself found the production to be tinny, and almost empty in a way. But coming back to this, the strength of the songwriting really stands out. I LOVE the opener..I think one of his best openers honestly. Pigsty, work of art, in the future, the youngest etc..all of my favorite tracks from him. It really took coming back to this years later to fully appreciate it. It's been getting so much play from me.
 
Anonymous said:
For me, Ringleader is far and away the best Morrissey album this century and I think it's only just pipped by Vauxhall as his best solo album overall. The songs are great, the arrangements are great and it hangs together brilliantly as an album. I can't understand why some people seem to think it has "poor production" or "sounds terrible". Maybe there are some incredibly bad pressings out there. Maybe some Morrissey fans are aware that he doesn't like Tony Visconti anymore, so therefore he must be a bad producer, whatever the objective facts may be. Maybe we're living in an age where if it's not sampled and Pro Toolsed to a crisp then people just can't cope. Those are all the explanations I can think of.

Mind you, I would criticise Visconti for hiring a string section for one song and then using synthesised strings elsewhere where the real thing would have been so much better.
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It's all down to taste, it's as simple as that. The explanation is that some people like some things more than others. My favourite Morrissey album since 2000 is Years of Refusal, that seems to be his most disliked among a lot of people, but who cares? I put Ringleader on when I need to hear something different, it's definitely not the first lp I look for.
 
Charlie Cheswick said:
It's all down to taste, it's as simple as that. The explanation is that some people like some things more than others. My favourite Morrissey album since 2000 is Years of Refusal, that seems to be his most disliked among a lot of people, but who cares? I put Ringleader on when I need to hear something different, it's definitely not the first lp I look for.
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I think Morrissey's peak, in some sense, as a singer and lyricist was through Ringleader and Refusal. But Ringleader is the better of the two.
 
i dont have a lot of technical know how but it sounds dry crackly and loud to me to the detriment and distraction of the song. i dont think it Visconti hate as im a big bowie fan and i think so are others
 
Anonymous said:
I think Morrissey's peak, in some sense, as a singer and lyricist was through Ringleader and Refusal. But Ringleader is the better of the two.
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I guess he's a better singer technically on his later albums. Lyrically I think his peak was Meat is Murder and out of Ringleader and Refusal I prefer Refusal. It's all subjective though.
 
"Ringleader" is a great record. I loved it in 2006 when it came out and probably actually like it even more now than I did then. I don't have any qualms with the production either, but I think the best produced Morrissey album in quite some time is WPINOYB.
 
Side A always reminded me of "Meat is Murder" for some reason -- just a rocking collection that goes from strength to strength. Pretty much the first 8 songs are perfection (though "Father" wore thin for me pretty quickly)... but, conversely, the final 4 songs seemed very weak to me, like sub-par B-sides. Never understood why "Boy" was a single. Nonetheless I agree that it's a very solid album, and one of the better post-2000 ones (probably after World Peace and maybe Quarry in my estimation.)
 
i need to listen it again but i think it's one of the worse album he made with "your arsenal"
 
Harsh Truth said:
It really is bad. Sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. A perfect example is "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", a song I personally love. But when the police sirens at the beginning end, you expect the song proper to come belting in like a bat out of hell, like it does in concert. Instead, on the album it wimpers in like a shy mouse.

The singles sound a bit better on the Greatest Hits compilation, but not much so.
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Basically I agree with all of this.

Especially the Greatest hits part.My vinyl of Ringleader is useful as a serving dish but not much more than that. It has the swampiest vinyl mastering of all time.

I love most of the album though bar the sub par sound.

I Just Want To See The Boy Happy is the worst single of all time with That's How People Throw Up coming in a close second... or is it the other way round? I forget.

I DO NOT get hatred for On The Streets I Ran at all. I f***ing love it!
 
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The highs on this album are phenomenal ('Life is a Pigsty', 'Dear God Please Help Me', etc), but sadly the album as a whole is padded out with some fairly turgid filler ('The Youngest Was the Most Loved', 'The Father Who Must Be Killed', etc). Despite this, and the shockingly bad mastering and dynamic compression (please someone re-master this album!), I prefer this to the slightly sterile sounding 'You Are the Quarry'. It's rough, and uneven, and Morrissey is straining so hard his voice almost goes on 'On The Streets I Ran', but at least it has some life to it.
 
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