Should Morrissey and Richard Ashcroft just give it up, already? - Popmatters.com

Should Morrissey and Richard Ashcroft Just Give It Up, Already? - PopMatters
By David Selsby

The biggest problem with being a faded genius is that nothing he or she ever produces again can be analysed, critiqued, or appreciated in a vacuum. It all comes in the wake of their prior transcendental music.

Excerpt:

"But the music that Morrissey and Ashcroft are turning out now is so bad that we clearly hear they have nothing left to say in the medium. Writing perhaps? Sure. Large swaths of Morrissey's memoir, Autobiography (Putnam 2013) were delightful. But not in rock 'n' roll or pop or whatever you'd like to call it. Morrissey and Richard Ashcroft have said everything of import on record that they were ever going to say. Accordingly, I've never understood the rock fan that likes the entire corpus of a particular musician or band. Actually, I understand it, but I'm irked by the lack of honesty. Morrissey has developed a legendary following. His fans will buy whatever he produces, and if he's touring in a region where his following is strong, they will turn out in droves time and time again to support him. That's fine. In fact, it's very kind. But if you can't tell the difference between "Rusholme Ruffians" and "Stay in Bed All Day", then you never understood the man's genius."

Regards,
FWD.

 

[Mcgill]

Musicians not as good as they were twenty or thirty years after they reach the top? if they are ‘guilty’ of that it’s hardly a shock, how many others artists truly do match there best work so many years later. Least Moz is still trying to do new stuff, better that than some third rate tribute act to his past self, purely milking the cash cow of the past, like so many big acts do. I don’t rate some of the new stuff but he gets credit for trying to keep his edge at least

 

[ninetimesfined]

Just what we need, an article finally doesn’t allude to him being a racist, just alludes to him being crap.

 

[Flibberty]

Sometimes though, nothing is better than something.

Sure, but most of Morrissey's work since the "comeback" has been very well received. LIHS is the first album not to receive positive reviews and there is no doubt that the work Morrissey has done since YATQ has certainly massively boosted his reputation after Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted nearly ended his career.

 

[DGSE]

The politically correctness in all is wrong...

 

[DreamingofStew]

Oh, for heaven's sake, don't encourage them to publish!

 

[bhops]

I'm still thrashing Low In High School like a red headed stepchild and loving it! I also loved World Peace so for me Morrissey still has so much to offer, especially for someone like me that never quite understood the reverence with which Quarry was greeted. I've enjoyed the last two albums as far and away the best of the 'comeback' era which means on a personal level he still has a lot more to say and the band sonically gets better and better. Each to their own I guess.

 

[firstodie..]

I'm still thrashing Low In High School like a red headed stepchild and loving it! I also loved World Peace so for me Morrissey still has so much to offer, especially for someone like me that never quite understood the reverence with which Quarry was greeted. I've enjoyed the last two albums as far and away the best of the 'comeback' era which means on a personal level he still has a lot more to say and the band sonically gets better and better. Each to their own I guess.

Like

 

[marred]

I'm a Morrissey fan, but does it actually matter what it's called?

Yes. Yes it does matter. All this guy has to do is write, and getting song titles correct when writing about them is not much to ask. I actually like it when they get the titles wrong. It shows what they know. Very little.

Or they could be doing it on purpose.

 

[g23]

Sure, but most of Morrissey's work since the "comeback" has been very well received. LIHS is the first album not to receive positive reviews and there is no doubt that the work Morrissey has done since YATQ has certainly massively boosted his reputation after Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted nearly ended his career.

I don't know if the work has boosted his reputation or not. Ringleader, Refusal, World Peace, and High School have maybe one album's worth of good material between them. Ringleader ushered in a new era of either lazy lyrics, overly clumsy sexual lyrics, cringe inducing political ones, and here and there you get something with great lyrics but boring music (Mountjoy) or passable lyrics to interesting music. It never seems to align for him in the last decade and change.

 

[Flibberty]

I don't know if the work has boosted his reputation or not. Ringleader, Refusal, World Peace, and High School have maybe one album's worth of good material between them. Ringleader ushered in a new era of either lazy lyrics, overly clumsy sexual lyrics, cringe inducing political ones, and here and there you get something with great lyrics but boring music (Mountjoy) or passable lyrics to interesting music. It never seems to align for him in the last decade and change.

That's your opinion and your entitled to it, but the fact is that Ringleader got great reviews at the time and certainly boosted Morrissey's career and reputation.

Also, I personally don't think it can be said that it ushered in a new era in terms of the lyrics. There had been plenty of dodgy lyrics on Southpaw Grammar, Maladjusted and YATQ as well. It's interesting that you singled out The Youngest Was the Most Loved, but the likes of Dagenham Dave and Roy's Keen featured infinitely weaker lyrically imo.

 

[g23]

That's your opinion and your entitled to it, but the fact is that Ringleader got great reviews at the time and certainly boosted Morrissey's career and reputation.

Also, I personally don't think it can be said that it ushered in a new era in terms of the lyrics. There had been plenty of dodgy lyrics on Southpaw Grammar, Maladjusted and YATQ as well. It's interesting that you singled out The Youngest Was the Most Loved, but the likes of Dagenham Dave and Roy's Keen featured infinitely weaker lyrically imo.

Maladjusted def had some HORRIBLE lyrics. But it also had some amazing ones. The albums I brought up had a few that I thought were okay, but nothing to write home about. I mean, "I've been shifting gears all of my life" is pretty lazy, actually. Pigsty in general is an awful song that people oddly venerate. It's all subjective like you said, but when his lyrics were bad before, it was usually because he was trying to make a musical joke, not a song for the ages. As for Southpaw, I've never heard of an album called Southpaw. I'll take your word on it.

 

[Cornflakes]

They could all retire......but there are no new bands of their equal. Rock and Roll is going the way of the Dodo and will probably be dead in it's current form in 20 yrs.

Tbf, everything will be dead in its current form in 20 yrs.

 

[Flibberty]

Maladjusted def had some HORRIBLE lyrics. But it also had some amazing ones. The albums I brought up had a few that I thought were okay, but nothing to write home about. I mean, "I've been shifting gears all of my life" is pretty lazy, actually. Pigsty in general is an awful song that people oddly venerate. It's all subjective like you said, but when his lyrics were bad before, it was usually because he was trying to make a musical joke, not a song for the ages. As for Southpaw, I've never heard of an album called Southpaw. I'll take your word on it.

Err. Read my posts again.

You certainly seem to have some extreme feelings about ROTT though, but as you've indicated they are not necessarily shared.

 

[Truth]

Tbf, everything will be dead in its current form in 20 yrs.

Or possibly later on today.

 

[ACTON]

What a load of bollox. Morrissey has made some great music and I love LIHS. I have it on CD and green vinyl and I bloody well love it. I get it that some people don't like it, but that is no reason to trash it. Anyone who listens to 'Home is a question mark' or 'Israel' and calls them crap is either deaf or has an axe to grind with Moz for other reasons.

 

[ACTON]

Who the f*** is Dick Ashcroft? I reckon he is just another loser brittish singer who couldn't afford to live in LA like Uncle Steve and is now jealous. Reckon like Rusty Brand.

The drugs don't work. You should try some stronger pills my dear AssTouchCamcorder.

 

[ACTON]

For someone who has 'nothing left to say', Morrissey seems to inspire a lot of column inches.

I'll agree with everything you say cos your username is out of this world. Was it generated by Zen or Orac?

 

[vegan.cro spirit #987]

PopMatters is a left wing troll blog. This is no secret.
People who write there dont get paid and have a very limited vocabulary.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a Morrissey fan, but does it actually matter what it's called?

Yeah when the only point is lazy journalism, it does yes. I mean people buy morrissey records & go to see him because he is good, in fact one of the last true artists but they try to twist it saying we can’t tell the difference. It’s pathetically annoying. THE WORLD WONT LISTEN

 

[g23]

Err. Read my posts again.

You certainly seem to have some extreme feelings about ROTT though, but as you've indicated they are not necessarily shared.

I know, I know.

And surprisingly, out of the 4 most recent, it's the loud blah rock of Refusal that grates me the most,
I just don't really bring it up since nearly all of that album is a non-entity for me.