The NME wouldn't know music if it jumped up their arses and made them itch with anger to scream 'I'm a wanker'

Typically they'll just opt for The Strokes - Is This It, because after all they did sort of bring back leather jackets and dirty shoes which appeals to their 'fan base'

Oh the NME....once a upon a time you actually made sense. Trust you spineless hacks to pick Morrissey's worst album to celebrate

R.I.P NME

in the Decade, maybe Morrissey can release one more masterpiece.

but enough lists for now

Morrissey will never get the credit he deserves,
it's His fate, and ours

Blame the music critic-press

this is not a kick to anyone who send it the
newslist

sorry just bored

It's unsurprising in the extreme that the NME felt 'duty-bound' to include 'Quarry' in their top albums of the decade list, in light of the obsequiousness they poured upon the Crown Prince of Adolescence in 2004. To do otherwise would surely manufacture the strong impression of intellectual dishonesty (and revisionism). Given the NME's inreasingly desperate need to perpetate the illusion of integrity and cultural relevance, still hanging around its offices like an aftertaste from the '70s and '80s, their hands were tied.

'Quarry' is a very, very good record. The melodies are zingy and turbulent; the lyrics singular and acrid; the style not too far away from 'irresistable.' The minor gripe of occasionally mechanical musicianship doesn't weigh too heavily down upon the record's shoulders because - in the final analysis - it's a superb collection of songs. 'First of the Gang' delghts and surprises with its wistful 60s melody and peculiar imagery; 'Irish Blood' says something that needed to be said with a sang-froid; 'You Know I Couldn't Last' panders to the bitter, washed up icon, refusing to lie down and crumble, far better than the combined efforts of all songs on 'Maladjusted.'

Each Morrissey solo effort has sought to achieve a different sound to its predecessor: Viva Hate, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal, Vauxhall and I, Southpaw Grammar, and Maladjusted all moved the sound on. In Quarry's case, it didn't really seek to radically alter the overall sound, it just did a far better job of it.

'Years of Refual' is, however, a better album. It might not have been as well-timed as 'Quarry,' as romantic a tale as the scarcely believable rising from the ashes, or as accessible to the mainstream of pop. But it is better. I'm convinced it will be remembered alongside 'Vauxhall' as Morrissey's finest solo work.

'Refusal' doesn't so much drift along as charge. The most obvious difference between this album and the two preceding albums was this viciousness of intent. 'Skull' is the first time I can recall Morrissey's band providing the kind of sweetly melodic, charmingly crisp backdrop that Marr used to deliver with aplomb. It's a searing opener with its mildly confused lyrical vagueness, perturbing gravity and coy turn of phrase, peppered with the kind of amusing twists and turns that define Morrissey's writing. It's a 'What She Said' for 2009 focusing on the often-neglected topic of mental health. 'Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed' is epic, sprawling, strange and addictive. "You Were Good in Your Time" is a Bond theme tune with a difference: camp, self-aware and self-deprecating. It's Morrissey's most joyous torch song since 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday.' The rest of the album rattles and rocks and jousts playfully. 'When Last I Spoke to Carol" is mournful and melodic, sprinkled with magic courtesy of Spanish guitar and brass; while 'It's Not Your Birthday Anymore' recalls the oddness of form and style of 'Speedway,' intriguing with its paradoxical cynicism and heart-felt vocal delivery . "The heart has a heart of its own..." conflicts with "Do you really think we meant all those syrupy, sentimental things we said yesterday?" There are weaker moments in 'Black Cloud' and the final two songs, which make it down the runway without quite taking off.

'Refusal' is his most urgent post-comeback record, it's his most diverse and there's enough there to keep you amused and distressed until the next Morrissey release. It's a special album. It looks to the past (the melancholia of Vauxhall, the ambition of Southpaw Grammar, the more aggressive bite of Your Arsenal) and reinvents it as something wholly new. That's what Morrissey has been doing throughout his career and rarely better than here.

# 12 of the decade ~period

I´m not sure if Moz is happy to be in NME´s top 50.... or on 98 of 100! I think he doesn´t want to be seen with the same eye Beyonce etc. is seen. Otherwise he would have pleased the NMM in the last 25 years. But he is unique and not to be compared with mainstream, I think?!?