What do you think of the general quality of the new songs?

How do you rate the new songs (being previewed live)?

  • 1. Brilliant; up there with his best ever stuff (Smith or solo)

    Votes: 4 7.1%
  • 2. Really good; a definite improvement on the last two albums

    Votes: 10 17.9%
  • 3. OK; similar quality to the recent stuff

    Votes: 33 58.9%
  • 4. Disappointing/not very good. Worse than most of the Quarry/ROTT songs

    Votes: 9 16.1%
  • 5. Really awful; a new career low.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    56

Maurice E

Junior Member
Seems to be a fair mixture of comments about the unreleased songs being previewed live.
A few assumptions needed for this poll but I'm interested in what we make, generally, of the new songs...
The last two albums have received average scores of about 75 out of 100 (see metacritic website which provides an average of most reviews).
http://www.metacritic.com/search/process?sort=relevance&termType=all&ts=morrissey&ty=0

This means they are good solid albums, not spectacular but not disastrous. Accepting this verdict, how do you rate the three or four new songs that we've heard live?
Let's all have a heated debate!
 
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I've only really heard two of them. I can't really make a judgement on a song after hearing 30 seconds of it on youtube. I don't see how anyone else can either. The sound quality is terrible.
 
I've only really heard two of them. I can't really make a judgement on a song after hearing 30 seconds of it on youtube. I don't see how anyone else can either. The sound quality is terrible.

Yeah, good point.
But I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that I think the new stuff is pretty encouraging, musically at least.
I've only heard Paris twice and was really impressed. A nice simple guitar line in the verse and a very strong chorus melody. Hardly any of the ROTT songs had that.
Plus, 'That's How People Grow Up' has a good chorus and an interesting arrangment.
I'm generally quite critical of modern-day Moz but these songs have given me hope!
 
I don't like the choices- I would vote "Really good, on a par with the last two albums."

Listening to Moz is like ordering a prix-fixe menu. You aren't quite sure what you're going to get, but it's always good.
 
I don't like the choices- I would vote "Really good, on a par with the last two albums."

Listening to Moz is like ordering a prix-fixe menu. You aren't quite sure what you're going to get, but it's always good.

Soz but I did try to justify the choices!
We all have our own opinions but the critical consensus for the last two albums is 7-7.5 out of 10 (which I actually think is a little generous if anything).

Surprised (from this poll) that people don't seem keener on the new songs. I think Moz and the band have upped their game...
 
Yes, you are suggesting that the last 2 albums weren't really very good with the 'Really good; a definite improvement on the last two albums'-option.
And of course both albums got better reviews than most of his other albums.

The 2007-situation has only been seen once before, in 2002 (i.e. Morrissey performing tracks that have yet to appear) and the 2007-songs pale in comparison to most of the songs that were debuted in 2002.
Then again, all of them are far better than Mexico. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think all four songs would average in between 7 and 8.
So my vote: Quite good, on a par with ROTT at least, but nowhere near his best work.
 
But I thought ROTT was big, arty songs. Not exactly singalong material, with a few exceptions. Quarry is clean, low key, calm songs- it's very soothing actually. The new songs seem simpler lyrically, with more drive behind them. Apples, oranges, and pears. I love pears. I think I'll go have one for breakfast...
 
Yes, you are suggesting that the last 2 albums weren't really very good with the 'Really good; a definite improvement on the last two albums'-option.
And of course both albums got better reviews than most of his other albums.

The 2007-situation has only been seen once before, in 2002 (i.e. Morrissey performing tracks that have yet to appear) and the 2007-songs pale in comparison to most of the songs that were debuted in 2002.
Then again, all of them are far better than Mexico. On a scale of 1 to 10 I think all four songs would average in between 7 and 8.
So my vote: Quite good, on a par with ROTT at least, but nowhere near his best work.

Don't think it's really true that the last two albums got better reviews than most of his others. They got metacritic scores of 72 and 75.
Vauxhall received universal acclaim; would've been around 85 had metacritic existed, and Viva Hate/Your Arsenal would've been around 80.
The last two certainly did better than the Kill Uncle/Southpaw/Maladjusted set but were some way off the scores you need to be considered one of the year's best, and receive nominations for awards etc...
 
Don't think it's really true that the last two albums got better reviews than most of his others. They got metacritic scores of 72 and 75.
Vauxhall received universal acclaim; would've been around 85 had metacritic existed, and Viva Hate/Your Arsenal would've been around 80.
The last two certainly did better than the Kill Uncle/Southpaw/Maladjusted set but were some way off the scores you need to be considered one of the year's best, and receive nominations for awards etc...

Well, I don't like Metacritic. It's pretty useless as almost any odd album gets 4 or 5 stars these days.
I much prefer this site, which counts ratings AND all end-of-year lists. Of course end-of-year-lists are much more objective than ratings when an album has just been released anyway.

Using this method both Quarry (2) and ROTT (5) are in the top-5 most acclaimed Moz-albums. I also think consensus among fans is that both albums are top-5.
 
I think that the new songs are really strong, and hopefully Visconti can make these songs really shine.

Out of these four songs, both Boz and Jesse have written two. I remember reading that Alain had a load of songs that he thinks Morrissey will like. Will Morrissey be using these too?

I guess the Walker brothers will be playing on the new record too?
 
I think Quarry has some that will stand up to most of his past, and Ringleader has at least 1 great song and 2 or 3 pretty good ones.

None of the answers in the poll work for me, but I recklessly put "All You Need Is Me" with his best, and "That's How People Grow Up", I have decided is a really good song, too.
 
I think Quarry has some that will stand up to most of his past, and Ringleader has at least 1 great song and 2 or 3 pretty good ones.

None of the answers in the poll work for me, but I recklessly put "All You Need Is Me" with his best, and "That's How People Grow Up", I have decided is a really good song, too.

I do really love All You Need is Me, and That's How People Grow Up- but I haven't even heard the other two in their entirety, so that's easy to say.
 
same here. The part I really love in That's How People Grow Up is "As for me, I'm ok", because it's like a narrator of an old movie, and the whole part about "someone said, 'there are other souls, too'" is pretty good.
 
I like All You Need Is me alot. Paris is extremely good and has a wonderful melody but perhaps a little short on lyrics.

That's How People Grow Up has some nice bits but overall it's poor. The chorus can be quite tedious.
 
same here. The part I really love in That's How People Grow Up is "As for me, I'm ok", because it's like a narrator of an old movie, and the whole part about "someone said, 'there are other souls, too'" is pretty good.

I thought it was "other sorrows, too". I have the Vegas bootleg... let me go listen.
 
I really like the music on all three new songs. It’s actually the lyrics that I’m a bit disappointed with. Maybe with the exception of ‘Paris’ I quite like the chorus and the melody.
 
Well, I don't like Metacritic. It's pretty useless as almost any odd album gets 4 or 5 stars these days.
I much prefer this site, which counts ratings AND all end-of-year lists. Of course end-of-year-lists are much more objective than ratings when an album has just been released anyway.

Using this method both Quarry (2) and ROTT (5) are in the top-5 most acclaimed Moz-albums. I also think consensus among fans is that both albums are top-5.

That's not really true about Metacritic. Plenty of stuff gets poor marks.
Look at the current list. http://www.metacritic.com/music/
James Blunt gets 55, Happy Mondays 57. Nearly everything there's below 80 (which would be 4 stars). It's pretty reliable for what it does.

The two most recent albums are top 5? Well, there's only a total of 8! So, they may be 4th and 5th but still very middling. The Ringleader songs are doing particularly badly in Houdini's poll. This will probably put the album among the bottom three, and that's according to us lot!

Anyway, apologies for being pedantic/argumentative! And thanks for the link to that other site. Pretty impressive. Never seen it before...
 
Anyway, apologies for being pedantic/argumentative! And thanks for the link to that other site. Pretty impressive. Never seen it before...

No problem, that's whay we're here for!

Another site I really enjoy is RateYourMusic, which is based on ratings from music lovers like you and I rather than critics.
In their list Quary and ROTT are 4th and 5th respectively:
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/morrissey
 
I really like the music on all three new songs. It’s actually the lyrics that I’m a bit disappointed with. .

It seems quite a few people on here are feeling the same.
The lyrics now seem very direct and lacking in poetry.
A bit of a concern when you consider Moz's words have always been so important.

However,i do remember thinking the same way when songs like Dagenham Dave came out.

I'm hoping that he'll go more in the Sweetie Pie direction : pretty straight lyrics but with a very ethereals,strange feel about them
 
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