"Low In High School" released (Nov. 17, 2017)

Low In High School is out now.

• Full tracklisting and details
• Reviews
• Related tagged articles - "low in high school info"

 

[Welfriend]

*Ouch*
That is going to be the first MOZ Album I will not own. Listening to it - it is really bad. Only Home and Spent are not annoying.
But being supportive I already purchased the 7" of Spent the day.... which is kind of ..... nice.
I am out ....

 

[Anonymous]

This album is unlistenable. Morrissey has officially lost his mind (in a toilet stall in Tel Aviv), obviously.
Get...off...the......well, you know

 

[T. H. Auden]

Love the album! Powerful and gentle in equal measures

 

[the_matt_attack]

'BrummieBoy' reviews 'Lost In High School'.....

TL,dr.....Morrissey trolls himself into reputational oblivion. Individual songs vary but overall score 0/10

'My Love, I'd Do Anything For You'
Modern Life Is Rubbish: The media are rubbish. Earning a living is rubbish. Being a lonely millionaire pop star is rubbish. This song is rubbish. Clumsy cacophony of glam-faux metal with self-consciously clumsly observations about 'society, init'. 2/10

'I Wish You Lonely'
A surprising gem of a song that gets to the heart of how and why serious depression warps your worldview to the extent that even the sacrifices of those who died in two world wars are thrown on the funeral pyre of solipsism. Brief, to the point. Musically succinct. Morrissey probably doesn't realise how revealing these lyrics are & how they are the key to debunking his entirely fake projected image but....he'll learn....8/10

'Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up On The Stage'
'Everybody's running to the exit'. Tired, obvious play on Shakespeare's 'all the world's a stage' mortality motifs. Would make a good choice for the return of Elsa Mars. Musically plodding till ending with half-arsed attempt at post-rock 'continuous crescendo'. 3/10

'Home Is A Question Mark'
Morrissey is a multi-millionaire C List ex-celebrity who feels 'homeless'. Spurious lyrical intrusions about record company wranglings & silly attempts at humour about real/imagined sexual interludes. Nothing new here. This has all been covered so many, many times. Vocally mawkish, the singing fails fail to signify anything other than obvious insincerity. Musically nondescript except for amusingly redundant hammer-horror attempts at 'drama'. 2/10

'Spent The Day In Bed'
A playful & pleasant musical diversion with Roxy/Prog Rock flourishes. However this hymn to a duvet day is marred by lyrics which put The Morrissey Enigma centre-stage, thus ensuring the basic premise of 'self-care is for eveyrone' fails and it just comes across as a multimillionaire moan from a 5* hotel mental asylum. 4/10

'I Bury The Living'
Ridiculous nonsense. Lyrics that scream FAIL from the outset. When did a squaddie dismissed as ignorant manage to add 'vulgarian' to his lexicon? Presumably Morrissey was hoping to troll Passchendaele or another WW1 centenary? Nobody who's studied history would think in such obvious cliches. Ludicrous terrain covered here. An enlisted soldier goes from programmed drone to misanthropic psychopath with no plot-line or explanation. Ends with ' a mother's lament', another cliche of war reportage. No mention of conscripts or conscientious objection.
This is perhaps the most ludicrous song in the Morrissey canon and, as such, is some sort of warped achievement. [Edit: After finishing album review -"Hold my beer!"] The music is a rag-bag quilt of cinematic cliches from the portentous pre-amble to the sneering coda. 1/10

'In Your Lap'
The 'Arab Spring' is introduced as a framing device then studiously ignored for the rest of this hideous ballad where someone's foot is pointlessly glued to the piano sustain pedal whilst 'interesting noises' seep in and out of the corpse of this song. Technically, Morrissey's voice is excellent but that's irrelevant as he conveys nothing more than opportunistic attempts to co-opt the horrors of Syria to spice up his dreary vapid musings. Lyrics could be about oral sex as succour for war or someone longing to rest their head in a lost friend/relative's lap. It hardly matters. 1/10

'The Girl From Tel Aviv Who Wouldn't Kneel'
Once again, Morrissey attempts to co-opt the vast history of pain & suffering in this world to spice up his life as a so-called 'radical artist'. It is musically 'different' only because it swaps Dad-rock cliches for World Music cliches. The lyrics are, once again, an insufferable rag-bag of daft cliches. Deeply foolish attempt to equate the turmoil in the Middle East as purely to do with the petro-dollar. This is the kind of song you hear in a 'word cafe' type restaurant where the cosmopolitans order Nigella's aubergine-beef fettah. It is a reprehensible thing, yet more evidence of an album that shamelessly tries to adorn Morrissey's boring persona with various forms of irrelevant musical cultural appropriation. A white millionaire who lives in sybaritic luxury watching CNN in a 5* hotel / attending plays by 'historic protest figures'/ listening to 'World Music' but only to feed his exhausted misanthropy. And so on and so forth. 2/10

'All The Young People Must Fall In Love'
FFS! This template is really annoying. Begin song with random reference to world events/politics. Presumably this is Morrissey's song about the election of President Trump & an attempt to offer comfort and succour to his 'woke' liberal US audience & pretend he gives a flying fcuk about their fate under the corn-pone regime. He really cares about all these things so long as it brings in the money. As an anthem to hopeful youth if falls flat on it's ass/arse because it's sung by ageing miserable millionaire Morrissey. Musically ludicrous. Ignore with venom. 1/10

'When You Open Your Legs'
Morrissey goes clubbing in Tel Aviv, apparently. Who knew? Who could possibly care? Isn't he a bit old for clubbing at 58? Another tiresome ballad that drones on with some supposedly revelatory disclosure that humans use sexual pleasure as a release from the turmoil of life & the inevitability of death. Another bit of suspicious misanthropy thrown in for no particular reason.
The horn riff sounds like something from a bad re-make of Ben Hur and the image of stampeding elephants in a circus tent came to mind. 1/10

'Who Will Protect Us From The Police?'
WTF! Listening to this album was a torment. I didn't think it could get worse, but it did...More cliched nonsense about 'the police' as enemies rather than arbiters between power, law & justice. Ends with wails of 'Venezuela' for no plausible reason. Given it precedes 'Israel' it would have made more sense to wail 'Palestine'. Or given his recent foolishness in Rome: 'Italy'.....*rollseyes*
1/10

'Israel'
Morrissey Trolls The Balfour Agreement. Begins with a melody that's suspiciously close to Frankie's 'Power Of Love' then descends into a total abyss of lyrical foolishness. A catastrophic song that stands as a perfect tombstone for Morrissey. Blatant, wilful trolling. It encapsulates everything wrong with him as he ignites his reputational funeral pyre in a truly cathartic career-ending splurge. Alongside 'I Wish You Lonely' it is the only song that isn't total pastiche, cliche and nonsense but, again, for all the wrong reasons and those reasons aren't what Morrissey intends. The true horror lurking behind an excellent vocal performance is that he doesn't realise he's gone too far this time....
As far as I can make out, Morrissey is a lapsed Catholic who cannot face Atheism so is on the cusp of embracing Judaism as some sort of talsiman to protect him from his forthcoming death. Whatever...That's fine. I've had similar moments. What is not acceptable is the wild conflation of Judaism with Zionism which these lyrics carelessly & deliberately foist onto the landscape like pouring petrol on smouldering embers. It's a wilful attempt to troll one of the most tragic situations in human existence, again, purely to add spicy controversy to 'Being Morrissey'. Truly hateful song.

"I can't answer for what armies do. They are not you"

Really? Well, let's just 'bitch and whine' about the Israeli army & police as well, shall we? Or do they get a pass from the condemnations within 'I Bury The Living' & 'Who Will Protect Us From The Police'? Why? What on earth is a young Muslim person in Palestine, Small Heath or Dearborn to make of this clumsy, inept lyric that equates their co-religionists in Palestine's struggles with merely another attempt to 'bitch and whine'? Morrissey knows this song has no plausible defence, especially given the lyrical content of the songs preceeding it. But that's the point: Troll harder. That's all that's left to this morally bankrupt crank-fraud posing as 'artist'.
Mercifully, there is no 'animal rights' nonsense here given his latest cashmere cardigan & cheesy meal deals at the Hollywood Bowl. One assumes Morrissey finds being a Vegan Humasexual In Tel Aviv is liberating. He has noticed that many Jews do not have hang-ups about sexuality and have finessed a nuanced debate about animal liberation. What he hasn't added to his uneduated, illiterate mental jigsaw puzzle is the fact that many/most of those people also are vehemently opposed to militant Zionism. Singing "I can't answer for what armies do. They are not you" in Hayarkon Park will be his lowest abyss. It is a fatuous provocation, an attempt to troll everyone who supports justice for Palestine- especially Jews & Muslims working within the Israeli state towards a 2 state solution. Morrissey cannot claim the song isn't a covert endorsement of dodginess when he references the wider world's reaction to the excesses of Zionist expansionism as just another 'bitch and whine'. Fingers crossed, he will be ignored outside of the rabid Right. However, don't be surprised if Roger Waters has a thrombo and gives 'Morrissey the face-time attention whore troll' exactly what he craves. A truly great artist could grapple with the centenary of the Balfour Agreement & sing a song about Israel that balances the right of Israelis to protect themselves from Islamofascism alongside the rights of Palestinians to justice and an end to the Zionist expansion of settlements that seeks to make peace an impossibility. Morrissey is not that artist. Morrissey is not an artist. He is a troll.

It possible to be a total Judeophile, like me, without giving a free pass to Zionist fanatics. Anyone who thinks Morrissey would pause before trolling Palestine for column inches now knows he simply doesn't care. It's all about Morrissey: Israel, Nuclear War, Animal Liberation. Sexual and gender freedoms - they are all just spices to add to the hellish mental and moral stew that is 'Morrissey'. "oh, the squalor of the mind!" 0/10

Conclusion:
I can't imagine ever listening to this album again. Despite a full major label publicity campaign, I can't imagine it selling in anything like the quantites Morrissey expects. Unless it credibly matches Liam Gallagher's recent sales, it's pretty clear Morrissey is no longer the 'British Icon' his bizarre cult fans claim him to be.

best
BB

This is very well written and funny but I disagree with a lot of it. Are you an ex Morrissey fan? Or never a fan? What's your agenda? Are you the real troll?

"oh, the squalor of the mind!" and 'hotel mental asylum' made me laugh out loud. It does seem that el Mozo seems to be becoming more insane and solipsistic with each album but I've loved him so much for so long I can't find it in me to really dislike anything he does...

 

[Bluebirds]

Haven't listened to the album since the early hours of this morning on a train after a nightshift and have no real desire to.
Suffice to say I Bury The Living actually saw me nod off. I've got to be honest kids the album hasn't grabbed by the Heinz Baked Beans. I've got no real interest in Morrissey's confused view of the world and despair that he thinks 3 or 4 decentish songs pass muster for the rest of the album. I quite like I Wish You Lonely, Jacky, Home Is a Question Mark and Spend The Day in Bed
And When You Open Your Legs for some unfathomable reason. The rest is just f***ing dire.

 

[Anonymous]

After two listens (just to be sure), I don't have any inclination to listen to it again. Not even an individual song. And I liked WPINOYB, for the most part.

At various points, my mind conjured up a 23yr old Morrissey on some 1980s BBC2 pop culture programme. Screwing up his nose and saying "Well I thought it was terrible".

 

[the_matt_attack]

I've listened to the new album a few times now and I give it 3/5 stars. What do you think of my updated solo album ranking?

1 Your Arsenal
2 Vauxhall and I
3 Viva Hate
4 You Are the Quarry
5 Years of Refusal
6 Kill Uncle
7 World Peace is None of Your Business
8 Ringleader of the Tormentors
9 Low in High School
10 Malajusted
11 Southpaw Grammar

 

[BrummieBoy]

This is very well written and funny but I disagree with a lot of it. Are you an ex Morrissey fan? Or never a fan? What's your agenda? Are you the real troll?

"oh, the squalor of the mind!" and 'hotel mental asylum' made me laugh out loud. It does seem that el Mozo seems to be becoming more insane and solipsistic with each album but I've loved him so much for so long I can't find it in me to really dislike anything he does...

Thanks for the compliment. Art is important. It is important to root out imposters. Morrissey isn't a serious artist. Nobody listening to 'Low In High School' could possibly claim he is. It's the musical & lyrical equivalent of 'List Of The Lost'.

I don't use the word 'fan' as it's derivative of 'fanatic'. I've periodically been a part of Morrissey's 'audience' but my interest in him is more to do with his claims to 'authenticity' and that he's not just another huckster. In so many areas he's been debunked as a crank and a fraud. No, I'm not a 'troll' as that is a meaningless word these days but I do use the dynamics of online trolling to debunk those who pose as 'sincere' but who resort to outlandish trolling to achieve their goals. Morrissey is the most egregious example. What's wonderful is that his inept trolling has failed and he has been 'hoist by his own petard'. My agenda? To repeat myself...Art is important. It is important to root out imposters. Morrissey isn't a serious artist. Nobody listening to 'Low In High School' could possibly claim he is. It's the musical & lyrical equivalent of 'List Of The Lost'.

BB

 

[ordinaryboy86]

I've listened to the new album a few times now and I give it 3/5 stars. What do you think of my updated solo album ranking?

1 Your Arsenal
2 Vauxhall and I
3 Viva Hate
4 You Are the Quarry
5 Years of Refusal
6 Kill Uncle
7 World Peace is None of Your Business
8 Ringleader of the Tormentors
9 Low in High School
10 Malajusted
11 Southpaw Grammar

Maladjusted is heaps better. But to each to their own.

 

[Eric Hartman]

I've listened to the new album a few times now and I give it 3/5 stars. What do you think of my updated solo album ranking?

1 Your Arsenal
2 Vauxhall and I
3 Viva Hate
4 You Are the Quarry
5 Years of Refusal
6 Kill Uncle
7 World Peace is None of Your Business
8 Ringleader of the Tormentors
9 Low in High School
10 Malajusted
11 Southpaw Grammar

Wrong thread. We’re here to discus his latest train wreck called Low In High School.

 

[001]

I've listened to the new album a few times now and I give it 3/5 stars. What do you think of my updated solo album ranking?

1 Your Arsenal
2 Vauxhall and I
3 Viva Hate
4 You Are the Quarry
5 Years of Refusal
6 Kill Uncle
7 World Peace is None of Your Business
8 Ringleader of the Tormentors
9 Low in High School
10 Malajusted
11 Southpaw Grammar

World Peace 7th!? 7th!?

Low in High School 9th!? 9th!?

I think your solo album ranking needs work! However, as I like all of those albums I'll give you an A+. Seriously though, just look at that list! He's made cracking f***ing albums!!! I think he's just getting better and better!

 

[Anonymous]

Bona drag
World peace
Your arsenal
Swords
Quarry
Maladjusted (reissue)
Years of refusal
Vauxhall
Low in high school
Viva hate
Kill uncle
Southpaw
Ringleader

This is where I stand these days. It should be said that i don't have the personal love for all the introspective songs about loneliness or longing for love that many seem to. I thought it interesting in the same way I find romantic characters in books interesting even if they don't relate to my life much directly. Albums like kill uncle I enjoy for it's craft and light humor and viva hate for its drama though I'm not a fan of the boomy percussion heavy sound of the album. The section from lihs to maladjusted I kinda rate around the same level of enjoyment though I look to them for different things and different moods. Swords to bona drag are the albums I can always go to and frequently do

 

[the_matt_attack]

Thanks for the compliment. Art is important. It is important to root out imposters. Morrissey isn't a serious artist. Nobody listening to 'Low In High School' could possibly claim he is. It's the musical & lyrical equivalent of 'List Of The Lost'.

I don't use the word 'fan' as it's derivative of 'fanatic'. I've periodically been a part of Morrissey's 'audience' but my interest in him is more to do with his claims to 'authenticity' and that he's not just another huckster. In so many areas he's been debunked as a crank and a fraud. No, I'm not a 'troll' as that is a meaningless word these days but I do use the dynamics of online trolling to debunk those who pose as 'sincere' but who resort to outlandish trolling to achieve their goals. Morrissey is the most egregious example. What's wonderful is that his inept trolling has failed and he has been 'hoist by his own petard'. My agenda? To repeat myself...Art is important. It is important to root out imposters. Morrissey isn't a serious artist. Nobody listening to 'Low In High School' could possibly claim he is. It's the musical & lyrical equivalent of 'List Of The Lost'.

BB

I don't think he's a serious artist any more in the sense of making important work that's pushing music forwards, but I do think he takes the work seriously. He doesn't seem the type to just make an album for the attention, or to troll the music world. He obviously has a shy and depressive temperament, along with all the money he'll ever need, so why would he bother carrying on if he didn't believe in what he's doing? That's not to say he should believe in what he's doing. His politics are all over the place though and every time he references world events I cringe for him. I haven't read List of the Lost... is it really that bad?

 

[ACTON]

I've heard the album once now in full and I love it. I took my dog for a walk and put on my headphones and loved every second of it. 'Israel' is an amazing album closer.

 

[the_matt_attack]

Maladjusted is heaps better. But to each to their own.

Maladjusted loses a star for the worst pun in the history of recorded music...Roy's Keen.

2nd worst pun ever is King Leer

 

[Eric Hartman]

I don't think he's a serious artist any more in the sense of making important work that's pushing music forwards, but I do think he takes the work seriously. He doesn't seem the type to just make an album for the attention, or to troll the music world. He obviously has a shy and depressive temperament, along with all the money he'll ever need, so why would he bother carrying on if he didn't believe in what he's doing? That's not to say he should believe in what he's doing. His politics are all over the place though and every time he references world events I cringe for him. I haven't read List of the Lost... is it really that bad?

Morrissey needs attention like a vampire needs blood. That’s why he’s going for lyrical shock value. He’s a junky. Stop buying in to the persona. It’s a lie.

 

[Anonymous]

Wrong thread. We’re here to discus his latest train wreck called Low In High School.

I haven't actually heard it all yet, my LP arrives tomorrow, and I'm gonna wait till then. The songs I have heard sound pretty good to me, so its disappointing to read the posts on here and its as though I don't like it even before I've heard it. Seems people are quite eager to really slate it.

 

[Eric Hartman]

I've heard the album once now in full and I love it. I took my dog for a walk and put on my headphones and loved every second of it. 'Israel' is an amazing album closer.

Your posts always make me laugh. I remember one comment a while ago where you said: “World Peace is glued into my car stereo...” I laughed so hard my doctors were worried. Thank you for your great sense of humor.

 

[Vauxhall95]

*Ouch*
That is going to be the first MOZ Album I will not own. Listening to it - it is really bad. Only Home and Spent are not annoying.
But being supportive I already purchased the 7" of Spent the day.... which is kind of ..... nice.
I am out ....

Well, YOR was the first album I didn't buy, and I managed to rejoin the fold for subsequent albums...so hope springs eternal my friend!

 

[Anonymous]

You're having a giraffe Sir. Outside from 95 is one of Bowie's best albums. If only Moz had such daring - the subsequent tour was also very special. David managed a blistering 2 hour set, Morrissey today struggles with 50 minutes. And Earthling from 97 features great songs Dead Man Walking; I'm Afraid of Americans; Little Wonder; and The Letter. I was at the Hollyweird Bowel show and was beyond disappointed. The band are so ernest, there seems no joy amongst the players, it's a slug fest. And the songs are musically uninspired with such asinine lyrics you wonder if Moz is having us on.

I think there may be something in what you say, but speaking as someone who knows the Bowie oeuvre well, Morrissey has never produced an album as bad Bowie's in the mid-80s and early-90s. Even Kill Uncle - for me by far Morrissey's worst album - is better than those.

Which goes to show that when an artist does finally shuffle off upstairs it's the body of work that matters, not what it said about the later work - which usually tends towards the negative anyway.

These days - if you are lucky - I do think the very late work (60+) may get a more sympathetic ear (see Bowie, Cohen, Dylan) as nostalgia kicks in and old flaws are forgotten. And I think this could well happen to Morrissey if he sticks around long enough.