Below par Morrissey is still better than most artists "great" works

[butley]

Had the misfortune to hear some of the latest Manic Street Preachers stuff and couldn't believe how duff it is. Do they ever get critically mauled? Any road I put Disc 2 of You Are The Quarry on and even these songs, which I'm not particularly fond of, are still better than most people's "greatest" hits. Just saying.

 

[marred]

I am a big fan of the Manics but even I have a hard time getting into Futurology. Their two last great albums were Send Away The Tigers and Journal For Plague Lovers. The two albums after these Postcards From A Young Man and Rewind The Film were okay, but not great.

As far as a below par Morrissey goes whenever I feel below par he lifts me up. How high that is can vary with only millimetres in difference.

 

[Musician]

Had the misfortune to hear some of the latest Manic Street Preachers stuff and couldn't believe how duff it is. Do they ever get critically mauled? Any road I put Disc 2 of You Are The Quarry on and even these songs, which I'm not particularly fond of, are still better than most people's "greatest" hits. Just saying.

Nonsense. Futurology is an absolutely great record. Beats "Quarry" by mile. No whining Welsh millionaires about their taxes and how the police fined their cars.

But each to his own.

 

[Anonymous]

Had the misfortune to hear some of the latest Manic Street Preachers stuff and couldn't believe how duff it is. Do they ever get critically mauled? Any road I put Disc 2 of You Are The Quarry on and even these songs, which I'm not particularly fond of, are still better than most people's "greatest" hits. Just saying.

I'm detecting an undertone of "poor, unfairly treated Morrissey". But critics are generally pretty kind to him, except in the case of List of the Lost, because it was beyond awful. World Peace was pretty weak for a Morrissey album, but it got better reviews than it deserved (IMO). Morrissey does get criticised a lot for his behaviour, but that's another matter.

I like the Manics, but there's no denying not everything they have put out is genius. What do you expect for a band that's been together for getting on for three decades? If you don't like it, listen to something else. Personally, I'd rather see a band like that just make the records they want to make, rather than just pointlessly re-treading the same ground.

 

[Vegan]

Had the misfortune to hear some of the latest Manic Street Preachers stuff and couldn't believe how duff it is. Do they ever get critically mauled? Any road I put Disc 2 of You Are The Quarry on and even these songs, which I'm not particularly fond of, are still better than most people's "greatest" hits. Just saying.

For me it's his voice and the way he uses it (phrasing, vibrato) that transforms a mediocre song into something special so, yes, I enjoy even his weaker material more than I do, say, anything at all by Sam Smith.

 

[marred]

I'm detecting an undertone of "poor, unfairly treated Morrissey". But critics are generally pretty kind to him, except in the case of List of the Lost, because it was beyond awful. World Peace was pretty weak for a Morrissey album, but it got better reviews than it deserved (IMO). Morrissey does get criticised a lot for his behaviour, but that's another matter.

I like the Manics, but there's no denying not everything they have put out is genius. What do you expect for a band that's been together for getting on for three decades? If you don't like it, listen to something else. Personally, I'd rather see a band like that just make the records they want to make, rather than just pointlessly re-treading the same ground.

And we know exactly where that happens on a daily basis don't we?