Best Morrissey studio album?

[Anonymous]

Vauxhall, then a toss up between Arsenal and Quarry

Production values are good on WPINOYB and it is an enjoyable album, but the quality of the song writing is nowhere near those three above

In what sense would you say. I myself found the quality of the music and songwriting to be pretty high on world peace. Lots of different types of songs, some beautiful guitar work here and there, variety of instruments and styles. I also for one enjoyed the more extroverted subject matter on world peace. Some of arsenals songs for all that I love them are kinda simple musically like glamorous glue

 

[terrancestamp]

Always tough as many are close. I'd say arsenal and world peace at the moment. If you included bona drag as an album which to me it feels like that would probably be at number one. I used to put quarry over world peace but as I've sat with the album world peace has really grown on me and that's with me always having liked it. To list them I'd say right now it goes

Bona drag (I'll include it)
Arsenal
World peace
Quarry
Viva hate
Maladjusted (reissue)
Vauxhal (this and maladjusted are really close. Vauxhal hits higher highs but maladjusted is more consistent and has grown on me a lot)
Kill uncle
Refusal
Southpaw
Ringleader

If we were to include swords I'd put it above quarry or at least equal to

WTF?? Maladjusted better than Vauxhal.....you must be the only person in the world that thinks that. Maladjusted must be on the bottom of the list.

 

[Flibberty]

My list would be:

Vauxhall and I
Viva Hate
Ringleader of the Tormentors

Your Arsenal
World Peace is None of Your Business
You are the Quarry
Years of Refusal

Maladjusted
Southpaw Grammar
Kill Uncle

 

[Vegan]

Who voted for "Kill Uncle"?

 

[Anonymous]

Who voted for "Kill Uncle"?

Person on the first page said they did

 

[Anonymous]

"Your Arsenal" is I think the best! It was founded modern “Morrissey” as we know him outside of the Smiths. As far as I know, it is best selling Morrissey record.

You clearly don't know very far because it is his worst selling album! Well in the UK at least. didn't even go Silver (60,000 units) whereas others have gone Gold (100,000) and even Platinum (300,000).

 

[ACTON]

You clearly don't know very far because it is his worst selling album! Well in the UK at least. didn't even go Silver (60,000 units) whereas others have gone Gold (100,000) and even Platinum (300,000).

Really? I doubt it sold less than Kill Uncle. Surely Your Arsenal sold well in the US at least? Wasn't that whole tour an amazing success? Surely it sold more than Maladjusted?

I remember buying Kill Uncle on CD for my brother the week it came out. He was a bigger Moz fan than I was back then but I do remember our mutual disappointment on listening to Kill Uncle the first few times. It just sounded flat and dead. It was like reading a book by an author who lost interest in writing it after the first chapter. Of course the quality level went sky high with Your Arsenal, but for a while after Kill Uncle it looked like Moz had fallen into a black hole of apathy. But everyone is entitled to a couple of duff albums. My least favourite Moz albums are: Kill Uncle, Maladjusted, Years of Refusal, although all three have more going for them than the best of other artist's albums, so it's all relative. My fav Moz albums are Vauxhall, Your Arsenal, Quarry. Some albums could have been astounding if certain songs hadn't been consigned to b-sides: Jack The Ripper, I've Changed My Plea to Guilty, I can have both, This is not your country, Nobody Loves Us, etc. Kill Uncle would have benefited from having 'My Love Life' on it. When I saw Moz live in the Point Theatre in Dublin in 1991 (his second appearance) he sang 'My Love Life' cos it was a new single, and it stood head and shoulders above the Kill Uncle tunes he was singing.

 

[Anonymous]

You clearly don't know very far because it is his worst selling album! Well in the UK at least. didn't even go Silver (60,000 units) whereas others have gone Gold (100,000) and even Platinum (300,000).

In the US, YA is his best selling album not recorded in the 80s.

 

[Surface]

You clearly don't know very far because it is his worst selling album! Well in the UK at least. didn't even go Silver (60,000 units) whereas others have gone Gold (100,000) and even Platinum (300,000).

Think you may be incorrect. According to Soundscan, in the US Your Arsenal has had the most sales of any of his albums?
Studio Albums
1988 1993 Viva Hate - 234,804
1991 none Kill Uncle - 221,293
1992 none Your Arsenal - 366,047
1994 none Vauxhall And I - 293,017
1995 none Southpaw Grammar - 67,451
1997 none Maladjusted - 88,554
2004 none You Are The Quarry - 230,169
2006 none Ringleader Of The Tormentors - 97,502

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah he also sold a record number of tickets on that tour I think. Here's a link with some soundscan data on the his solo albums along with some numbers on the smiths and world wide sales. Didn't know louder than bombs had sold so many copies

 

[Anonymous]

Think you may be incorrect. According to Soundscan, in the US Your Arsenal has had the most sales of any of his albums?
Studio Albums
1988 1993 Viva Hate - 234,804
1991 none Kill Uncle - 221,293
1992 none Your Arsenal - 366,047
1994 none Vauxhall And I - 293,017
1995 none Southpaw Grammar - 67,451
1997 none Maladjusted - 88,554
2004 none You Are The Quarry - 230,169
2006 none Ringleader Of The Tormentors - 97,502

Soundscan only goes back to the early 90s. Before it started, Viva Hate and Bona Drag both had gold certifications, meaning you need to add at least 500,000 each for those, and Your Arsenal is actually his third biggest-selling solo record in the US.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry forgot the link. This guys numbers have viva shipping 500000 but only selling about 260000

https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59368

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry forgot the link. This guys numbers have viva shipping 500000 but only selling about 260000

https://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=59368

No, that's not what the figures are. 260k is the soundscan figure since soundscan started in 1992. 500k is the RIAA figure between 1988 and whatever year the record went gold . RIAA do go by shipments rather than sales, but all of those will have been sold by now.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah I only realized after I posted it

 

[Flibberty]

You clearly don't know very far because it is his worst selling album! Well in the UK at least. didn't even go Silver (60,000 units) whereas others have gone Gold (100,000) and even Platinum (300,000).

Nice try, but not even close to the truth. You Arsenal was a big commercial success and was aided by being nominated for a Grammy.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Who voted for "Kill Uncle"?

Morrissey

 

[Vegan]

Why is YOR so low? Ah hell you could say that about any of them. The man makes great albums. Even Kill Uncle has a certain charm to it. 2016 has not been a good year for me. My wife lost both her parents, business losses, Bowie dead, Prince dead, Gene wilder dead, getting obsessed with the presidential election only to witness "the so-called greatest country in the world" elect a sociopathic moron for POTUS...... and worst of all? NO MORRISSEY ALBUM!

 

[Quando quando quando]

Why is YOR so low? Ah hell you could say that about any of them. The man makes great albums. Even Kill Uncle has a certain charm to it. 2016 has not been a good year for me. My wife lost both her parents, business losses, Bowie dead, Prince dead, Gene wilder dead, getting obsessed with the presidential election only to witness "the so-called greatest country in the world" elect a sociopathic moron for POTUS...... and worst of all? NO MORRISSEY ALBUM!

Well, we only have two choices out of his whole album range.
I like YOR a lot.
Maybe the result is a tiny bit misleading, in a way it now seems as if it is less liked.
As you stated: " Ah hell you could say that about any of them. The man makes great albums. Even Kill Uncle has a certain charm to it. "
Agree with you completely!
2016 has been named the year of the reaper and unfortunately for you, it has been too.
So hopefully 2017 will make up for you at least when there would be a new Morrissey album.
It would, for me too!
Cheers Vegan

 

[Quando quando quando]

Why is YOR so low? Ah hell you could say that about any of them. The man makes great albums. Even Kill Uncle has a certain charm to it. 2016 has not been a good year for me. My wife lost both her parents, business losses, Bowie dead, Prince dead, Gene wilder dead, getting obsessed with the presidential election only to witness "the so-called greatest country in the world" elect a sociopathic moron for POTUS...... and worst of all? NO MORRISSEY ALBUM!

Just as you are wondering why YOR is so low on the list I was wondering the same about WPINOYB.
Cause I'm really fond of that album and it even has at least 4 very strong songs at the bonuscd that could be changed for any of the ones on the regular one.
Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Anonymous]

Years of Refusal is a great record - in my top 3, for sure.