"Low In High School" review by Andrew Perry (4/5 stars) in Q (Dec. 2017)

'His best since 'Vauxhall and I', and will be known as his Israel album.' Line from 'Israel': "They bitch and moan because they are not like you". Oh dear.


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"Spent The Day In Bed rekindles the magic of Smiths classics such as Girlfriend In A Coma."
"Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up On The Stage is genuinely Smiths-worthy."

No no no, they are not trying to sell this album to casual Smiths fans who have long stopped listening. Oh no, what could possibly give you that impression?
Well...there is also the possibility that the reviewer is actually deaf I suppose.

In any case, f*** reviewers, their opinions are of no relevance to me, never have been.
I either like an album or I don't, no need for anyone to help me make up my mind.

I am still hoping it will be a good one of course.

That really was an odd thing for the reviewer to write.

Comparing Spent The Day In Bed to Girlfriend In A Coma is like comparing excrement to cream. It’s just ludicrous.

“Spent” wouldn’t have got an unheard of band as much as a record deal. It’s OK, but would struggle to find its way into the top 120 of Morrissey compositions. of the last thirty-five (gulp) years.

I’m off to Cupertino to find the person who devised this latest IOS keyboard. PM me if you would like me to pass on a message before I nail his or her ear to the nearest mindshare work node.
 
I genuinely love PFTLT & have done since the first time I played the 12” single the day it was released. It may actually be my favourite Mozzer single. I played it recently & it still has an energy that is lacking from most of his work since.

I know Moz has dismissed the song but personally I think it’s witty, catchy & rocking, with hilarious lyrics (“Phlegm lapels for the last time, corned beef legs for the last time”- who else would write an opening couplet like that?) & I wish he’d done a lot more rockabilly music.

Also, Kill Uncle is really unfairly dismissed. I think it’s a really good album. The music has more variation than anything he’s done since & there are some great songs. He really should’ve written more with Nevin. I’ve Changed My Plea & I know It’s Gonna Happen are two of the finest songs he’s written with ANYBODY, in my opinion.

He’s spent the past quarter of a century in a boring ditch of samey, unoriginal guitar music. That’s not to say he hasn’t produced some brilliant songs, but it’s clear that throughout his solo career he’s never found any collaborators who are his equal, & that’s a real shame. But, oh well, A duo like Morrissey & Marr is a once in a lifetime gift, right?

Btw, I think Spent The Day In Bed is
his all-time worst single. I wish he’d never written, recorded or released it. Truly dire.
This post took a dark turn at the end -
Damn.
(...haven't heard it yet.)
 
You could say Tony the Pony, and Sing Your Life. The live shows of that time, energetic as they were- were goofy as shit, with Boz and Alain duckwalking all over the place, the upright bass stuff, and overall way it was presented.

Don't hate me for saying it either. We all know that was the awkward, kind of dorky, trying to find their place teenager phase of Morrissey's solo career.
Euh, have you heard the fantastic live FM broadcast of the Paris'1991 show? The live version of the rockabilly King Leer stands very well. And the band plays tight.

What's wrong with rockabilly anyway ? A Kill Uncle era b-side like "The Loop" is golden rockabilly, very Elvis Sun Records-era.
Kill Uncle has got some amazing songs bar maybe the phrase and the title in itself "sing your life" . The VHs of live in Dallas has a horrible live sound , tbat's why a lot of critics/listeners have got this kind of view.
 
Interesting decision to highlight (and include) a praising Smiths feature in the same issue - timely publicity... or embarrassment over their celebratory review of a man with a malfunctioning switch-blade tongue, now reduced to tactless witticisms à la "I love my bed"...? :rolleyes:

What exactly is tactless about " I love my bed "?
And to whome?
Did he really step on some toes there? :confused:
Were they yours?
Would you like to elaborate?
 
That really was an odd thing for the reviewer to write.

Comparing Spent The Day In Bed to Girlfriend In A Coma is like comparing excrement to cream. It’s just ludicrous.

“Spent” wouldn’t have got an unheard of band as much as a record deal. It’s OK, but would struggle to find its way into the top 120 of Morrissey compositions. of the last thirty-five (gulp) years.

I’m off to Cupertino to find the person who devised this latest IOS keyboard. PM me if you would like me to pass on a message before I nail his or her ear to the nearest mindshare work node.

I want my period key back on the main keyboard
 
Looks like this one is more of a proper review and less of just a character assassination
Exactly. That's all most of us are asking for, I think. An unbiased review of the album. 'His best since Vauxhall'? If that is indeed true then we're in for a treat.
 
Interesting review. Key quotes for me are:
‘Any wavering voters who have struggled with his solo output will be astonished by Low in High School – his most consistently excellent since Vauxhall and I.’
‘Morrissey’s musical potency is still on the climb’
(our resident trolls will hate that line!), and ‘he rises to the occasion with lyrics of rare piquancy’.
I do think he over-praises Spent the Day in Bed a little, though. For me it's a reasonably pleasant Morrissey single, maybe a 7/10. Not really close to the majesty of the Smiths singles (which were nearly always 9s or 10s).
Interesting how there's no mention again of Home is a Question Mark, the fan favourite (by some margin) of the songs previewed to date, or of All the Young People, another of the more popular and musically interesting ones.
I'm surprised at how this review and the Mojo one have praised the lyrics so highly. I'm still expecting a few of the songs to be at least partly ruined by them.
I'm pretty confident now that the music, at least, on the album will be excellent - close to his best ever, certainly in the post Viva Hate/Bona Drag era.
As I've said before, I think the reviews will range between 2 and 4 stars (out of 5) and 5 to 8/10. The music's too good to go any lower, and the lyrics will prevent any maximum scores. All in all, the record company will surely be pretty happy with progress to date.
 
Andy,
Q magazine (THE WORLD'S GREATEST MUSIC MAGAZINE) give the verdict:
Morrissey is - A CLASS ABOVE
"Low In High School" is the best Morrissey album
(apart VAI)

You (Benny, Uncle) failed - again.

Full Stop.

Time will tell. Let's see the sales figures.

Alfie
 
Finally a good (well written) review that isn't just a terrible and sad character assassination, leave him alone and focus on his music, ya bastards!
 
How any Morrissey fan could call the video below the awkward phase of Morrissey's solo career is beyond me, especially as it was so clearly the highpoint:



Wow I've never seen that performance before. It's fantastic. I love that arrangement of "Certain People..." To think that was the line up Bowie was criticising. Bowie had consummate professionals in his band but was as boring as shit.
 
Wow I've never seen that performance before. It's fantastic. I love that arrangement of "Certain People..." To think that was the line up Bowie was criticising. Bowie had consummate professionals in his band but was as boring as shit.

this clip is great also:
 
What exactly is tactless about " I love my bed "?
And to whome?
Did he really step on some toes there? :confused:
Were they yours?
Would you like to elaborate?

I don't know. Sounds like that Trev & Simon sketch about the shirt - someone summed it up really well in another thread when they asked if a budding musician today could score a deal with a line like that. Sounds to my ears, personally, like Morrissey is quite confused these days: I don't understand myself, how you can have the brazen audacity and arrogance to say what he does about the Chinese 'subspecies' and Brexit, and yet palm off his fandom with a lead single featuring such a nursery rhyme lyric as "I love my bed." Doesn't seem that articulate, in short. To me, that is.
 
What's wrong with rockabilly anyway ?

Jesus... Where do I start? ;)

Honestly, nothing, but it's a very unimaginative and derivative style, post-50's that is. You have to color within the lines, and there's no innovation beyond trying to sound Chuck Berry-esque.
It worked for Morrissey for a minute. He's dabbled in various styles, so no biggie there.
Had he stuck with the sound as some kind of rockabilly niche act though, I think his career would have ended in 1990 something.

In my personal life though, the rockabillies I've known personify a dumbed down lifestyle of cars, alcohol, and a profound lack of self-knowledge or intellectual thought. At least the punks have a sense of humor.
 
Jesus... Where do I start? ;)

Honestly, nothing, but it's a very unimaginative and derivative style, post-50's that is. You have to color within the lines, and there's no innovation beyond trying to sound Chuck Berry-esque.
It worked for Morrissey for a minute. He's dabbled in various styles, so no biggie there.
Had he stuck with the sound as some kind of rockabilly niche act though, I think his career would have ended in 1990 something.

In my personal life though, the rockabillies I've known personify a dumbed down lifestyle of cars, alcohol, and a profound lack of self-knowledge or intellectual thought. At least the punks have a sense of humor.

You make an interesting point about it being for just 'a minute.' I actually really like the way the Langer/Winstanley rockabilly stuff was hardened on the road into this stompier sound. Bleeds almost seamlessly into the gritty glam of Your Arsenal, for me.
 
You make an interesting point about it being for just 'a minute.' I actually really like the way the Langer/Winstanley rockabilly stuff was hardened on the road into this stompier sound. Bleeds almost seamlessly into the gritty glam of Your Arsenal, for me.
I thought the Kill Uncle era sound was just thin and watery. It could have been the production as much as the music, but I definitely listen to that era the least. I do realize that it is important, and the people who caught the wave of mania surrounding the Kill Uncle tour will defend it to the death, but the band and songs improved so drastically by the time Arsenal came out, and Vauxhall is pretty much perfect, and the the high water mark for the Boz/Alain/Gary/Spencer band. It's the difference between youthful exuberance versus practiced musicianship.
 
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