On which album does morrissey's voice sound the best?

[Spineless Swine]

For me it's a toss up between 'the smiths' and 'viva hate,' but i'd probably just go for the latter, so much emotion and pain in his voice in songs like 'suedehead' and 'break up the family,' beautiful. However, techically speaking his voice probably peaked at around the maldjusted era, agreed?

[mozmic_dancer]

I love the way his voice sounds now on ROTT, particularly on Dear God, Please Help Me, I'll Never Be Anyone's Hero Now, and You Have Killed Me.

Ageless.

[Young And Alive]

Viva Hate for me for Everyday Is Like Sunday alone.

[wolve]

Interesting poll!
I went for "Ringleader of the tormentors", to compare his voice on that and The Smiths (debut), is amazing. The voice evolved so much. And to be honest, his voice now fits the stuff he sings about (while that dark, kinda childish voice really fits his Smiths-period-stuff)

[Nikita]

It's obvious for me that Morrissey's singing improved each year, so ROTT wins even if it's not my favourite album at all

[Pervomartovtsi]

I've never been good at categorizing voices...and I know Pavarotti is gonna hate me but...Strangeways...

[Reggie Kray]

They are all good, although I must say Viva Hate because of the range he showed and the consistency...

[veradicere]

I originally got into Morrissey b/c of his singing on Viva Hate, which I can only describe as "breathy"

I also think it was some of his most emotional singing.

[faroffplaces]

I really admire Morrissey's ability to change his vocal persona according to what he's doing at the moment - he really does sound completely different at different phases of his career, from the understatement of Southpaw to the almost feminine eerieness of Viva Hate to the range-attack-on-falsetto-mountain assault of Ringleader.

To me this seems like an exclusively post-Smiths phenomenon, though his voice did evolve a lot over their career. I think it had to; his performance on The Smiths has a classically first-publication quality to it, a bit like Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise: promising but technically unimpressive, exceptionally pure and beautiful, and expressive of a youthful self that disappears by the very act of being expressed. I don't believe that this is a bad thing -great creative people have got to begin to grow sooner or later- but I do believe that it's an inevitable change.

(I would never think to characterize the Smiths-voice as "childish" -I was hung up on how deep it was- but you're totally right, Wolve.)

Anyway, my favorite Morrissey is Southpaw-era, but current is an extremely close second.

[++++++]

I think Morrissey's voice was at its finest on Maladjusted. It's the perfect middle ground between his current robust vocals and his earlier deliveries.

[King Leer]

Not to split hairs, but I assume the question emphasizes "Which album has the best singing?" rather than "Which album has the best vocal production?" I wouldn't say they necessarily have to be the same album.

I think in general his singing has never been better than the last two albums, but there are arguments for the more immediate passion of the early stuff. But even in terms of Quarry and ROTT, I think while he pushes his voice harder and in different directions on the latter, Quarry may stand as the best recording of the man's voice yet (whatever you think of Finn's production on the music side). Hmm...

(you'll notice I haven't voted yet)

[mjp]

This is a similar debate to which is the better dvd - Live In Dallas or Who Put The M In Manchester - it's down to if you prefer the raw, desparate bareness of the earlier years or the crisp clean clarity of more recent times.

I haven't voted because it's impossible to lean towards one or the other; his voice has improved from a technical perspective but he's singing less from the heart I feel than the almost diary-entries of The Smiths.

If you were to put a gun to my head, and God knows there's enough vounteers, then I would say Quarry.

[Ambrosia]

Yeah, it's too hard to compare Smiths-period voice to the recent one, I can't choose. Anyway I think his singing style was more moaning and chanting in the first records (especially in "Smiths"). It could be sound monotonous to someone, but it was sooo visceral. . Even now the parts of the songs I love the most are the ones with long vocal twistings and gibberish...That is the Morrissey I adore.