Lets disect Greatest Hits (2008) and "Suedehead" greatest hits (1997)

[DarrenEdward]

I don't actually mind it - I like the Rockabilly sound. I was just taking the mick.. sorry if I sounded arsey! I think the new album's pretty cool - I take it you don't agree? Fair enough, but I'm interested in your viewpoint..

Hiya - just sounds like a man in terminal decline. He should make this album his last. Not popular, but dead honest.

All the songs seem to be either "I don't need anyone to love me" or "Why doesn't anyone love me?" and I just get the idea Moz might be running dry on ideas.

 

[Dave]

Hiya - just sounds like a man in terminal decline. He should make this album his last. Not popular, but dead honest.

All the songs seem to be either "I don't need anyone to love me" or "Why doesn't anyone love me?" and I just get the idea Moz might be running dry on ideas.

He also sings about being poor and unemployed, and stealing because you don't want a job.

 

[Deleted member 6503]

"Suedehead: The Best Of" was the first Moz CD I bought, but find the 2001 'Best Of' well superior - better track selections and all round just.. better.

I do also like "Greatest Hits", serves as a nice sampler of present day Moz. Still flippin' hate that Redondo song mind...

 

[Maverick]

I'd love to see Morrissey release an ultimate package - 2 discs covering every single he's released, another 2 discs encompassing every B-side (if 2 discs would do it?) and a then 2 DVD's - one of every promo video he's made, and another of every BBC performance he's done.

So a 4 CD / 2 DVD career retrospective. I don't mind packages like that, as long as they are done correctly. Erasure just did one & it's fantastic!

 

[Explosive Kegs]

I'd love to see Morrissey release an ultimate package - 2 discs covering every single he's released, another 2 discs encompassing every B-side (if 2 discs would do it?) and a then 2 DVD's - one of every promo video he's made, and another of every BBC performance he's done.

So a 4 CD / 2 DVD career retrospective. I don't mind packages like that, as long as they are done correctly. Erasure just did one & it's fantastic!

Erasure all so did the Crackers International ep lest we forget

 

[Maverick]

Erasure all so did the Crackers International ep lest we forget

Indeed they did - which i've got in 3 different formats!

Brilliant stuff.

Their recent Deluxe Pop collection has only reached number 21 - disappointing.

 

[StatelyWayneManor]

Thanks for the best of the Best of track listing, PT.
My apologies, Mcrickson. Yes, I agree to never quote "Paint a Vulgar
Picture" again. I could have said no; if I wanted to :^)

 

[Worm]

If my memory's correct, the greatest hits thing was part of what Morrissey and Merck Mercuriadis used to increase label interest when they were shopping for a new label. I could be wrong, but didn't Merck once post something about how they were offering a compilation plus a new album to potential labels?

You're right, I'd forgotten about that as well. I'm feeling so much better about my decision not to buy it.

I think it would've been better if it had just been a "Best Of" plus some obscurities from his Attack comeback period, with the years put in the title or something. If you put a few tracks from the early days and then everything else from recent albums, it's annoying to call it "Greatest Hits" even if they technically are his highest charting songs (to Americans, Morrissey never has any hits, and his greatest songs span his whole career with much more equal proportion).

But at least it had the Hollywood Bowl disc.

Well that's the thing. There were plenty of Attack B-sides to choose from, and IIRC some radio sessions, too. He could've put out a very good "Bona Drag"-style compilation featuring a mix of A-sides and B-sides, rarities, etc. A good 14 or 16 song compilation. "That's How People Grow Up" could've been the lead-in single, as "Piccadilly Palare" was. He couldn't really do that, though, because Attack released the B-sides on the deluxe editions. They'd already been collected and made available. So we got a crappy compilation instead.

Imagine "The Smiths" being released today.

You'd get "The Smiths" with the original 10 songs. Four months later you'd get the "Deluxe" version with this tracklisting:

"Reel Around the Fountain"
"You've Got Everything Now"
"Miserable Lie"
"Pretty Girls Make Graves"
"The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"
"Still Ill"
"Hand in Glove"
"What Difference Does It Make?"
"I Don't Owe You Anything"
"Suffer Little Children"
+ BONUS TRACKS
"Back To The Old House"
"Handsome Devil (Live)"
"These Things Take Time"
"This Charming Man"
"Accept Yourself"
"Jeane"
"This Charming Man (Manchester)"
BONUS DVD
"Live at The Ritz"

Which might not have been a horrible release, exactly-- but it would most likely mean we'd never have gotten this:

In the long run, the CD will probably be most remembered historically just for that certain pic on the inside.

Probably, and I wouldn't mind.

 

[Worm]

Hiya - just sounds like a man in terminal decline. He should make this album his last. Not popular, but dead honest.

All the songs seem to be either "I don't need anyone to love me" or "Why doesn't anyone love me?" and I just get the idea Moz might be running dry on ideas.

You'll find some who agree with that judgment.

Many don't. Years of Refusal is a great album-- top singing by Morrissey, excellent chemistry with his band, crisp production, and a very welcome unwillingness to indulge in pointless nostalgia.

If I may pose a respectful question, I'd be curious to know what sort of "ideas" you or other people would like to see from him. I've read some of the criticism of YOR on this site and mostly people seem disappointed that Morrissey hasn't made a certain kind of album, except nobody can really say what that album would sound like. I mean, if it just sounds bad to your ears, fine. Nothing wrong with disliking it. The "running dry on ideas" opinion intrigues me, though, because it sounds like maybe you know what you want to hear and aren't hearing it.

 

[Orson Swells]

Hiya - just sounds like a man in terminal decline. He should make this album his last. Not popular, but dead honest.

All the songs seem to be either "I don't need anyone to love me" or "Why doesn't anyone love me?" and I just get the idea Moz might be running dry on ideas.

Not popular, just plain daft.

Easily his best album since Vauxhall, arguably better than that actually - no "I Am Hated For Loving", for example. People have been saying he should quit since Viva Hate onwards. They say it with every release. They'll say it until he releases his last - then the entire body of work will be reappraised a la Bob Dylan and the same people will say it is uniformly great.

Don't mistake consistency of theme within the context of a single work with repetition. This album has a totally different tone and attitude to the last two. Morrissey has never sounded more sure of the point he wants to make and the way he wants to make it. It is clearly and logically structured from Skull through to Okay to that ends.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, most of the songs are about the same person...

 

[oye terence]

I would rather see a newer version of something like ' My early burglary days' There have been some great b sides since 'Maladjusted'.

 

[Slip-In]

I have never heard of any major label signing any artist/s based on past released material as a lead off album release, Moz may be the exception with The Greates Hits release, no one really knows?

Also, in reading the credits in The Greatest Hits and Years Of Refusal, it states c&p Morrissey which means Moz owns these songs. It makes me wonder if the Decca deal is just a distribution deal which would mean Moz stands to face the loss on both releases. And it would certainly justify/explain Decca USA not promoting Greatest Hits and Decca giving Moz a choice to shop around for another Universal Division to release YoR in the USA, again, no one really knows?

As for compilations, they are part of recording deals. Some artists have been known to complete recording deals by refusing to deliver a new material and have record companies release compilations to complete such recording deals. I'm not saying this is Moz's case but it happens.

I find it very fascinating how much of Moz's recording deals over the years have had so much mystery. I mean, no one really knows how much money he's gottend over these deals. It's almost like that's one requirement when he signs with records companies, not to reveal the ins and outs about the deals.

Furthermore, its very ironic about the record companies he's worked with before as some of them have said Moz has been a very difficult artist to handle but yet they keep releasing his back catalogue in one form or another, that is until Moz's legal team slaps them with legal actions, LOL.

 

[Worm]

I have never heard of any major label signing any artist/s based on past released material as a lead off album release, Moz may be the exception with The Greates Hits release, no one really knows?

Theo's right, I think. The record label wanted assurances that they'd make some money on their investment. Or maybe that's a rumor; as you say, nobody really knows.

By the way, if you feel frustrated about being in the dark about Morrissey's record deals, imagine how Andy and Mike felt.

 

[Slip-In]

Theo's right, I think. The record label wanted assurances that they'd make some money on their investment. Or maybe that's a rumor; as you say, nobody really knows.

By the way, if you feel frustrated about being in the dark about Morrissey's record deals, imagine how Andy and Mike felt.

LOL, its not frustation, more like curiosity,

Andy and Mike can moan and groan all they want about Moz's finances, they can't touch any of it, at least his solo earnings, LOL.

But you're right, record companies have every right to get their share of the pie,