"Viva Hate" reviewed in Pitchfork (7.3 / 10)

Re: Viva Hate reviewed in Pitchfork

Thanks for posting this

This strange mix of pomp and minimal languor makes Viva Hate the only Morrissey LP you'd consider listening to just for its music.

Not exactly-- I'd play "Your Arsenal" as an instrumental album and love it-- but the reviewer does hit on an uncomfortable truth about Morrissey's solo career.

 

[Orson Swells]

you're right the left over nevin songs that were produced by ronson and played by boz and alain were the highlights of Your Arsenal. i just remember the period post street - until boz and alain coming along as being pretty bleak for fans expecting a lot of morrissey's music. some real dross released with very iffy lyrics. a bit like today actually.

One of the things that muddied the waters post-Kill Uncle was the way Pregnant and My Love Life were presented as being Morrissey with his new band - when they were recorded by basically the Kill Uncle set-up. I think they even printed the Boz/Alain/Gary/Spencer line-up on the CDs when it wasn't really them. I presume it was a marketing ploy to distance the material from the previous album.

What I love about "Viva Hate" now, but didn't appreciate as much at the time, is that the music succeeds in establishing and sustaining a fragile, searching, reflective mood. I agree it has its imperfections, but I think a lack of cohesion isn't one of them. To my ears it has always sounded pretty consistent, except for maybe "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me". From start to finish I feel swallowed up in an atmosphere I've always found unusual for Morrissey: not as rocky as The Smiths, but lusher and more detailed; not as campy and funny as "The Queen Is Dead", but filled out in spots with a more subtle sense of humor; and awash in hazy memories of the Seventies that felt more contemporary than the aura of the Fifties and Sixties evoked by Smiths records. It's the only album of his which looks at the past realistically. Bits of good, bits of bad, best exemplified in "Late Night, Maudlin Street" or "Break Up The Family". Nothing he describes is held up as some long-lost ideal of perfection, nor is anything in the past scorned or lamented, despite the gentle mockery of ankle stars and such. The past is neither hostile nor welcoming. The album gives you a queasy feeling of ambivalence about everything he's singing about, a strange (golden) dust lands on your hands, and on your face, and on everything else. So while I agree that a few of the songs are "average" on their own, as a collection they're all very good. Which is all the more reason not to have axed "Ordinary Boys".

I find that after Break Up The Family, although I like the songs, it becomes (just a little) disjointed, but I agree that upto that point it is near perfect musically and thematically. Though I think perhaps Bengali could have been snipped in the remaster and it would not be missed. It has the feeling of a queasy reverie - not disimilar to The Good, The Bad and The Queen in some ways. I think it works because it is capturing Morrissey's fragile mood at the time; his guard is down on this record more than any other, I think. I've also always felt that the title Viva Hate doesn't really capture the essence of the album - hate not being the over-riding emotion on display... for a change.

 

[Worm]

One of the things that muddied the waters post-Kill Uncle was the way Pregnant and My Love Life were presented as being Morrissey with his new band - when they were recorded by basically the Kill Uncle set-up. I think they even printed the Boz/Alain/Gary/Spencer line-up on the CDs when it wasn't really them. I presume it was a marketing ploy to distance the material from the previous album.

What? Is that true? I hadn't heard that before. Did that appear in an article? A book?

I find that after Break Up The Family, although I like the songs, it becomes (just a little) disjointed, but I agree that upto that point it is near perfect musically and thematically. Though I think perhaps Bengali could have been snipped in the remaster and it would not be missed. It has the feeling of a queasy reverie - not disimilar to The Good, The Bad and The Queen in some ways. I think it works because it is capturing Morrissey's fragile mood at the time; his guard is down on this record more than any other, I think. I've also always felt that the title Viva Hate doesn't really capture the essence of the album - hate not being the over-riding emotion on display... for a change.

"Bengali In Platforms" is one of my favorite Morrissey songs. It's an irreplaceable part of Side One. I would miss it.

Also, I think the title "Viva Hate" is apt because it sounds defiant and combative. "Education In Reverse" was exactly the wrong title. You don't want the word "reverse" in the title of your first solo album, when many expect you to take a big step backward without your longtime writing partner. "Viva Hate" says: "I'm still here, I'm still going to get under your skin".

 

[Orson Swells]

What? Is that true? I hadn't heard that before. Did that appear in an article? A book?

It's bound to be in the Mozipedia. It's one of those things that came out retrospectively. I was amazed when I found out. The lads do appear on the b-side live tracks - so they are on the releases, but the impression given is that they play on all the tracks.

"Bengali In Platforms" is one of my favorite Morrissey songs. It's an irreplaceable part of Side One. I would miss it. Also, I think the title "Viva Hate" is apt because it sounds defiant and combative. "Education In Reverse" was exactly the wrong title. You don't want the word "reverse" in the title of your first solo album, when many expect you to take a big step backward without your longtime writing partner. "Viva Hate" says: "I'm still here, I'm still going to get under your skin".

I don't dislike Bengali - nice music, well sung - but it leaves me uneasy, not because I think it's racist, just because I think it's poorly thought through lyrically. I could easily live without it. Viva Hate is an apt title for his first solo LP, yes, but somehow it doesn't capture the resigned melancholy of the much of the content.

 

[Worm]

It's bound to be in the Mozipedia. It's one of those things that came out retrospectively. I was amazed when I found out. The lads do appear on the b-side live tracks - so they are on the releases, but the impression given is that they play on all the tracks.

Thanks. That is very surprising, although now that I think about it the music does sound much more like "Kill Uncle" than "Your Arsenal". I've always preferred the KROQ session version of "My Love Life" and the live versions of the others.

I don't dislike Bengali - nice music, well sung - but it leaves me uneasy, not because I think it's racist, just because I think it's poorly thought through lyrically. I could easily live without it. Viva Hate is an apt title for his first solo LP, yes, but somehow it doesn't capture the resigned melancholy of the much of the content.

It's the vocal delivery and-- especially-- the guitars that make the track for me. I would play it even as an instrumental. And, um, maybe many other people would prefer that it was without a vocal.

 

[Anonymous]

but there have been many dreadful songs since.. possibly he has now written as many bad ones as good ones. (Dagenham Dave "tune-impaired three-minute drone" NME, people are the same everywhere, all you need is me, on the streets i ran etc etc)

I was following you until here. On The Streets I Ran is one of my all time favorite Morrissey songs, from what I consider to be a near flawless album. Damn.