G
goinghome
Guest
Swords is really a fantastic album. After putting it by for a while I listened to it the other day on a long car journey and couldn't wait to put it on repeat and hear one after another moving well-crafted songs again. 'And does anybody feel the way I do?'
Just to remind people of the track listing:
Disc 1:
1. Good Looking Man About Town
2. Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
3. If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me
4. Ganglord
5. My Dearest Love
6. The Never-Played Symphonies
7. Sweetie Pie
8. Christian Dior
9. Shame Is The Name
10. Munich Air Disaster 1958
11. I Knew I Was Next
12. It's Hard To Walk Tall When You're Small
13. Teenage Dad On His Estate
14. Children In Pieces
15. Friday Mourning
16. My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
17. Drive-In Saturday
18. Because Of My Poor Education
Disc 2:
1. Black Cloud
2. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
4. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself
5. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
6. You Just Havent Earned It Yet, Baby
7. Life Is A Pigsty
8. I'm OK By Myself
Swords Music OMH review - http://www.musicomh.com/albums/morrissey-5_1109.htm...In short, some of these b-sides should have been a-sides.
In the space between rock songs and ballads, Morrissey offers some strange material here that would have never made it onto a proper album. Human Being features a dirty guitar solo that sounds like a distorted saxophone and is punctuated by weird sing-a-long chorus of "I'm a human being." Sweetie-Pie features ghostly vocals over a collection of drones and strangely operatic backup singing. It's quite something else to critise any Morrissey song as being too strange for his catalogue, but experiments like these recall the otherworldy creativity of the The Queen Is Dead and Your Arsenal, even if none of Swords' tracks approach the iconic levels of the classic songs.
In addition to the 18 tracks on Swords, a special release of the compilation offers six live cuts from a performance in Warsaw. It's a welcome addition, on the level of recordings from 2005's Live At Earls Court, and well the worth the higher pricetag. The band is blistering, the energy is high, and Morrissey is at his most charming. As he continues his reign as the king of mope into his fourth music-making decade, it's comforting to know that he's still upholding the tradition of singles and b-sides that really got his career going in the first place.
Just to remind people of the track listing:
Disc 1:
1. Good Looking Man About Town
2. Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice
3. If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me
4. Ganglord
5. My Dearest Love
6. The Never-Played Symphonies
7. Sweetie Pie
8. Christian Dior
9. Shame Is The Name
10. Munich Air Disaster 1958
11. I Knew I Was Next
12. It's Hard To Walk Tall When You're Small
13. Teenage Dad On His Estate
14. Children In Pieces
15. Friday Mourning
16. My Life Is A Succession Of People Saying Goodbye
17. Drive-In Saturday
18. Because Of My Poor Education
Disc 2:
1. Black Cloud
2. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
4. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself
5. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
6. You Just Havent Earned It Yet, Baby
7. Life Is A Pigsty
8. I'm OK By Myself