Rebels Without Applause released as a single track - initially on some region's YT, now to buy & stream (November 24, 2022)

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UPDATE (Nov. 25):

This Charming Bowie posted the story from official_morrissey_central / Instagram:

Morrissey's Rebels Without Applause is available today worldwide (including Britain) on Spotify,
courtesy of Capitol Records. The track is produced by Andrew Watt. This is Morrissey's first 'single' release since 'It's Over', taken from the 'California Son' album in November 2019. 'It's Over' peaked at number 1 in the UK vinyl chart.

Also now on Morrissey Central. Link posted by Famous when dead.

Rebels Without Applause - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - Rebels Without Applause

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Rebels_Without_Applause_(getmp3.pro).mp3

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we.tl

 

[BrokenFrame]

That is pitch-shifted and auto-tuned to f***

Why bother?

You still listening to Morrissey's new music?

 

[Mimi Ramone]

I just noticed that even the general topic of "Cemetry Gates" and "Rebels without Applause" is the same: old heroes dead but immensely loved. So the similarity seems even more intentional. Thinking about it I actually like the nostalgia in it and maybe it's even another nostalgic nod to the old Smiths days, for they will be become the same in the hopefully long distant future.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Listened a few more times, and I really don’t like it.

If you tune Morrissey out, the music itself sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place on one of those early 90s BBC programmes for children where a badly animated cartoon pencil teaches 5 year olds how to write a capital ‘B’ - the kind of thing the teacher sticks on to occupy the kids because little Barry (probably from Carlisle) has shit himself again and needs to be scrubbed clean in the toilets.

 

[YOR]

Bobby was brilliant. The production on point. This is nothing like that.
as a live pop song it was fine. This isn't great. It doesn't sound even finished. Doesn't M have to listen to it before he sells it?

Well, you're entitled to your opinion

I very much disagree...

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

An opinion from a music producer who's done work for the majors here and indie labels too. There are some pretty atrocious decisions here which really should have been caught many times over and I refuse to believe that Andrew Watt fully signed off on this.

Some people have rightly pointed out that there was a lot of autotune and vocal effects on the latest Ozzy album (which Andrew also produced). The difference is that the effects were for the most part tastefully added and didn't change the general timbre or sound of Ozzy's signature vocal style. The same cannot be said here.
Worst offender here is an absolutely horrific vocal glitch that can't be unheard at about 1:49 on "the blue flu" which is undoubtedly the result of poor time stretching. (If a vocalist is out of time then the vocal can be stretched to fit the backing music. Obviously this needs to be done with care (and tastefully) but here it has caused an actual artefact in the vocal track which is audible as a glitch.)

The "aaaand" at 2:39 is also a result of poor auto-tuning dragging the poor sound clip to whatever note it's been programmed to be. AutoTune is not offensive when done right and the reality of music these days is that pretty much everything bar a Tom Waits record has autotune on it. I actually thought it was excessively done on "IANADOAC" but it's far, far worse here.

I'm a huge Morrissey fan but safe to say this is the lowest studio production quality I've heard from one of his projects. Sucks for him, sucks for us.

Yeah, as I mentioned in a previous post. Watt mentioned that Morrissey gave him the music ( demos/stems?) to do what he wanted with them, but not to touch the vocals, but since the music was changed, Watts may have needed to adjust the vocals as best he could, which produced these artifacts. I guess M liked them enough not to redo them (?)

I also noticed other noises, which made me think the original vocals weren’t recorded as well as they could have been.

It can be called ‘low-if’ and in the context of the album it may work better, I guess they have their reasons for signing off on this mix, which I still find enjoyable, different in a good way.

 

[Lucifer Sam]

Listened a few more times, and I really don’t like it.

If you tune Morrissey out, the music itself sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place on one of those early 90s BBC programmes for children where a badly animated cartoon pencil teaches 5 year olds how to write a capital ‘B’ - the kind of thing the teacher sticks on to occupy the kids because little Barry (probably from Carlisle) has shit himself again and needs to be scrubbed clean in the toilets.

Very much agree. Interesting how we were all recalling the brilliant Cemetry Gates when we heard the live versions, but now with this treacly studio production, you're hearing hints of bubbly kid's program music and Redacted's husband heard Hootie & the Blowfish. Which now I'm hearing too, goddammit!

 

[ProdbyAnt]

Yeah, as I mentioned in a previous post. Watt mentioned that Morrissey gave him the music ( demos/stems?) to do what he wanted with them, but not to touch the vocals, but since the music was changed, Watts may have needed to adjust the vocals as best he could, which produced these artifacts. I guess M liked them enough not to redo them (?)

I also noticed other noises, which made me think the original vocals weren’t recorded as well as they could have been.

It can be called ‘low-if’ and in the context of the album it may work better, I guess they have their reasons for signing off on this mix, which I still find enjoyable, different in a good way.

Okay that adds some interesting context. As a producer myself though, I'd say these vocals are not salvageable with this backing so I would have insisted on re-recording one or the other until they matched (as hard as that is if you're re-recording the band). There's just too much time stretching and auto-tune going on here for my tastes and I wouldn't deliver a track like this to a major or an indie label. That time stretching here is like trying to put a circular shape peg through a square hole.

I'm really glad that people are enjoying this and I too think the song is great, just the production not so much. This was a track that needed to breathe and have some resonances in the mix. Here it sounds like a clippy, digitised mess lacking any clear aesthetic. A shame (I would absolutely die to get some vocal stems from Morrissey to play with though!)

Here's hoping that Andrew delivers the standard of production on the album that he delivered for Ozzy recently.

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Very much agree. Interesting how we were all recalling the brilliant Cemetry Gates when we heard the live versions, but now with this treacly studio production, you're hearing hints of bubbly kid's program music and Redacted's husband heard Hootie & the Blowfish. Which now I'm hearing too, goddammit!

Even the live version isn’t that good. Certainly not on par with Cemetry Gates, it just happens to sound a bit like it. This has to be a place-holder release in a (failed) attempt to make up for the recent cancelled gigs. I assume/hope songs like Veronica and Sure Enough… are being kept back for when the album release is imminent.

 

[gashonthenail]

So great to have something released from BOT, even if the mix is more than a little odd. I know it's from a photo but the cover is slightly reminiscent of the cover of Coming Up by Suede.
I wonder is Capitol testing the waters by putting this out first - to see how it sells? Maybe the whole album is only ever going to get a digital release?

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

So great to have something released from BOT, even if the mix is more than a little odd. I know it's from a photo but the cover is slightly reminiscent of the cover of Coming Up by Suede.
I wonder is Capitol testing the waters by putting this out first - to see how it sells? Maybe the whole album is only ever going to get a digital release?

That’s like trying to gauge interest in a new variety of Mars bar by releasing a dog shit in a wrapper designed by a 9 year old on Paint.

 

[Lucifer Sam]

If this auto-tuning is done throughout the album, the Miley Cyrus vocals on Veronica are going to sound like Party in the U.S.A. Miley Cyrus.

 

[hymeballs]

Played both the YT and Spotify versions back to back thru my vehicles excellent sound system. The YT version definitely has a fuller, deeper sound than the tinny Spotify version in which the drums come thru as a 1983 Casio keyboard drum kit . The song itself is a decent , not great pop song . 6/10

 

[TheSmiths_1985]

Played both the YT and Spotify versions back to back thru my vehicles excellent sound system. The YT version definitely has a fuller, deeper sound than the tinny Spotify version in which the drums come thru as a 1983 Casio keyboard drum kit . The song itself is a decent , not great pop song . 6/10

Decent? Maybe it’s decent if this is the vehicle you’re listening to it in:

 

[Anonymous]

An opinion from a music producer who's done work for the majors here and indie labels too. There are some pretty atrocious decisions here which really should have been caught many times over and I refuse to believe that Andrew Watt fully signed off on this.

Some people have rightly pointed out that there was a lot of autotune and vocal effects on the latest Ozzy album (which Andrew also produced). The difference is that the effects were for the most part tastefully added and didn't change the general timbre or sound of Ozzy's signature vocal style. The same cannot be said here.
Worst offender here is an absolutely horrific vocal glitch that can't be unheard at about 1:49 on "the blue flu" which is undoubtedly the result of poor time stretching. (If a vocalist is out of time then the vocal can be stretched to fit the backing music. Obviously this needs to be done with care (and tastefully) but here it has caused an actual artefact in the vocal track which is audible as a glitch.)

The "aaaand" at 2:39 is also a result of poor auto-tuning dragging the poor sound clip to whatever note it's been programmed to be. AutoTune is not offensive when done right and the reality of music these days is that pretty much everything bar a Tom Waits record has autotune on it. I actually thought it was excessively done on "IANADOAC" but it's far, far worse here.

I'm a huge Morrissey fan but safe to say this is the lowest studio production quality I've heard from one of his projects. Sucks for him, sucks for us.

I always thought Ringleader was rough as anything - Visconti dropped the ball here, or an executive decision went wrong.

 

[Anonymous]

Listening again on headphones to the Youtube version, and I can't help but think it sounds like a demo. This just isn't good enough sound quality, for whatever reason. Even the stereo panning sounds flat - other than the backing vocals everything seems to be pretty much straight down the middle. I guess the guitars are panned left and right, but as they are both playing the same thing even this doesn't help to give any sense of space or depth to it.

Are we sure this is the finished article, and not an early mix?

 

[ProdbyAnt]

I always thought Ringleader was rough as anything - Visconti dropped the ball here, or an executive decision went wrong.

I do agree on Ringleader, in my opinion it's his last truly great album. Unfortunately it's sullied by what appears to be a really limp mix.
Considering the definition and punch of YOR, I would love to hear Ringleader remixed.

 

[Lucifer Sam]

It's got a low-fi feel definitely, almost like first album Smiths, which may or may not be some people's preferred sound of choice. Could have done a bit more with the lyrics, it's a bit...bare bones.

It's "lo-fi," I guess, in the sense that it's 21st century lo-fi. Thirty years ago, lo-fi meant raw and unadorned, or doing interesting things with minimal or shoddy equipment. But this is lo-fi in that it sounds like it was produced by an idiot teenager playing around with mixing-board-&-autotune software on a PC.

 

[Paul Gambaccini]

Well I really like it.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

It's "lo-fi," I guess, in the sense that it's 21st century lo-fi. Thirty years ago, lo-fi meant raw and unadorned, or doing interesting things with minimal or shoddy equipment. But this is lo-fi in that it sounds like was produced by an idiot teenager playing around with mixing-board-&-autotune software on a PC.

not impossible to imagine that’s what M liked about it, since ‘the young kids get what the old don’t understand’.

 

[Lucifer Sam]

not impossible to imagine that’s what M liked about it, since ‘the young kids get what the old don’t understand’.

So it's Morrissey making those messages on Morrissey Central, and not Sam Esty Rayner?