Morrissey's rockabilly phase was the peak of his solo years. He followed it up with still more rockabilly sounds on Vauxhall & I. These were his two most heralded albums. Since then, it's been all down hill.
After that, Morrissey seemed to fail to establish a distinctive musical identity like he had with Stephen Street, and that he began having with Boz and Alain. Since Vauxhall, his sound became this plodding hodge-podge of pub rock, and random genre dabbling that I guess was meant to give the impression that he was broadening his palette, but comes across as cliched, and aimless.
What is remarkable is that it took him this long to show any real advancement in his sound. Even on the singles between Years of Refusal and World Peace, he seemed to be delve back into the sludge rock sound. That's How People Grow Up is hands down one of the worst songs he has ever released.
Now he has a more interesting sound, but the lyrical content has become wonky, and uninspired.
Your Arsenal was truly one of his best albums. The rockabilly playfulness on stage is exactly what the genre is about. If only the band members had anything resembling that kind of spirit now.
Now, Boz looks like a stage-float character strumming robotically while glaring at the audience like he can't stand them. Jesse looks like a guy playing air-guitar at the wrong concert.
The rest are great musicians, but they're basically just a rent-a-band. The Lads started out as a unit, and now it's become a lottery of session musicians who are pulling everything in to too many different directions.
In the end, it's a rarity that any artist can maintain consistency over so many albums. It's just not supposed to happen. Pop artists are designed to sparkle and fade rather swiftly. In all honesty, how many more Morrissey songs do we really need? I don't really expect him top surprise me at this point.
