25th anniversary of Kill Uncle

Kewpie

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Kill Uncle was released on 4th March 1991.

It's often regarded as the bottom of Morrissey's solo effort.

Can you give us the reasons what went wrong?
 
Kill Uncle was released on 4th March 1991.

It's often regarded as the bottom of Morrissey's solo effort.

Can you give us the reasons what went wrong?

IMO mainly that it had some weak songs on it. If you look at some of the b-sides and non-album singles around the same time, it's not that difficult to put together ten tracks that would have made a far better album. Maybe quality control was slipping a bit because Morrissey (and EMI probably) felt it couldn't wait any longer.
 
I think it's got some great songs. It just seemed very lighthearted for Morrissey but it was played on the radio and he had a very successful tour. I would have had no idea it was supposed to be his worst record until I had Internet access.
If he released it tomorrow I think we'd all think it was a brilliant return. I like every song on it.

If something went wrong and I was going to guess I'd say that we were used to some really great songwriting that was very meaningful, and the songs on Kill Uncle seem sort of light and humorous.
 
I think firstly there was a problem with Mark Nevin (which he has acknowledged himself). He was expecting to be able to add a lot more work to the music but it never happened. Some of the later songs that he co-wrote such as I`ve Changed My Plea to Guilty, You`re Gonna Need Someone on Your Side and I Know it`s Gonna Happen Someday are much stronger.

The production could also be better and Mick Ronson was a stronger choice.

Also, Morrissey's lyrics are throwaway and insubstantial.

There's very little to this album and I very rarely listen to it.
 
IMO although not as good as Hate, Arsenal, Vauxhall or Ringleaders, I don't consider it the worst solo album.

Shoe-gazing was dominating the "indie" scene in the UK and Uncle sounds so different to anything else around at the time. I would have loved to have heard Sing Your Life live.

It does however have one of Morrissey's worst lines:

"Your boyfriend, he
went down on one knee
well, could it be
he's only got one knee?"
 
IMO although not as good as Hate, Arsenal, Vauxhall or Ringleaders, I don't consider it the worst solo album.

Shoe-gazing was dominating the "indie" scene in the UK and Uncle sounds so different to anything else around at the time. I would have loved to have heard Sing Your Life live.

It does however have one of Morrissey's worst lines:

"Your boyfriend, he
went down on one knee
well, could it be
he's only got one knee?"

That line makes me laugh and it fits with Morrissey's other songs about people who have physical issues. Do you think it's worse than the "gift of the gab/gift of the grab" line? That one is not as funny because it's not absurd. I like Morrissey when he's in a good mood and making poor jokes. :D
 
This would have been pretty good. Ideally with a punchier production.

Sing Your Life
Mute Witness
Our Frank
The Loop
Tony the Pony

Pregnant for the Last Time
My Love Life
I've Changed My Plea to Guilty
(I'm) The End of the Family Line
There is a Place In Hell for Me and My Friends

Alas, this is not how it was.
 
I never understood why this album was/is so reviled. I was working in a record store when the album was released and this was the clear breaking point for some of the Smiths fans that used to come in thinking Morrissey's solo career was going to just continue along in that same Smiths-esque musical vein. I really think Kill Uncle separated the Morrissey fans from the Smiths fans (if that makes any sense.) I think it's main weakness is just that Nevin never got to flesh the songs out. If you listen to the Viva Hate demos and even some of the Arsenal demos they sound fuller than a lot of what ended up on Kill Uncle (I'm thinking specifically of the demo for Bengali in Platforms.) Sing Your Life was too bouncy and not what Smiths fans wanted to hear. Our Frank just kind of sucked as a lead in. Also, hope was so high after Street and Reilly helped Moz craft such a great solo offering. Kill Uncle was just a let down compared to Viva Hate and some of the singles from time period (remember the excitement of buying those early 12 inchers, CD5s??!) I think it showed that Moz was fail-able and until that precise moment that seemed unthinkable. Looking back we had no idea how good we had it.
 
I'm not sure who wrote this article, but the author uses the album as an example of his/her "wet dog theory" of record albums

"The album has never fit comfortably into his body of work; it just hangs there, a little bit marooned, underserved by history...And yet, “Kill Uncle” is one of my two favorite Morrissey albums. (The other, “Your Arsenal,” is a consensus pick.) Why? Well, “Kill Uncle” is a fine example of what I like to call a wet-dog record..."
 
When the album came out I rushed out to buy it, upon playing it I was gutted, my hero Morrissey was on the way down and running out of ideas, I tried a few more plays but to no avail - it was garbage. For some reason I thought I'd play it again the other day and okay, its no classic, but it was better than I remembered and to me better than World peace which I just can't get into and in 25 years still don't think I will.
 
kill uncle was released on 4th march 1991.

It's often regarded as the bottom of morrissey's solo effort.

Can you give us the reasons what went wrong?


Drugs

:straightface:
 
The reason Kill Uncle took so much stick at the time is that it was the first album after the near-perfect output of the Johnny Marr and Stephen Street era (I and quite a few others consider Street's stuff to be almost the equal of Marr's).
Kill Uncle was clearly not in the same class.
But viewed all these years on, and compared with the constant patchiness (and one might argue mediocrity) of the post Vauxhall albums it really isn't that bad at all. It's got 3 or 4 great songs on it which you can't really say about many of the post-Vauxhall albums. Also, as others have noted, the arrangements let some of the songs down.
It got a critical mauling for the same reason as Ouija Board.
Ouija Board is a pretty good Morrissey single viewed from 2016. But when it came out in 1989, it was arguably the first Morrissey or Smiths song that wasn't dazzling (or at least very good) so it got savaged.
But it's clearly as good, if not better, than many of the post-Vauxhall singles.
 
The reason Kill Uncle took so much stick at the time is that it was the first album after the near-perfect output of the Johnny Marr and Stephen Street era (I and quite a few others consider Street's stuff to be almost the equal of Marr's).
Kill Uncle was clearly not in the same class.
But viewed all these years on, and compared with the constant patchiness (and one might argue mediocrity) of the post Vauxhall albums it really isn't that bad at all. It's got 3 or 4 great songs on it which you can't really say about many of the post-Vauxhall albums. Also, as others have noted, the arrangements let some of the songs down.
It got a critical mauling for the same reason as Ouija Board.
Ouija Board is a pretty good Morrissey single viewed from 2016. But when it came out in 1989, it was arguably the first Morrissey or Smiths song that wasn't dazzling (or at least very good) so it got savaged.
But it's clearly as good, if not better, than many of the post-Vauxhall singles.

I think that if Kill Uncle's reputation had improved over the past 25 years that might be fair comment but...it hasn't. :) If anything, it seems to have down in people's estimations and "four great songs" is very generous imo.

The only albums that could compete with it in terms of being Morrissey's worst are Southpaw Grammar and Maldajusted. The last four albums are certainly massively superior.
 
The songs on it aren't bad as such, but it feels more like an album of b-sides than anything else.

Being preceded by the majesty of Viva Hate and Bona Drag (even though the latter wasn't a proper full studio album) didn't help either.

Some of the other songs from that era which aren't on the album are much stronger - "My Love Life" and "Pregnant for the Last Time" for example - so it's not as if he had lost his powers at that point in his career.

It probably is his weakest album, but in my view that doesn't actually mean it's a poor album.
 
I still believe it is a good album, but lacking one or two memorable singles.

As a whole, it works pretty well.
 
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