What makes "World Peace...." such a powerful album?

[keene]

Many critics and many people here on this site feel that WPINOYB is one of Morrissey's best and most powerful albums.

What makes this particular album worthy of consideration and repeat listenings?

In your opinion what sets it apart from his other work and other artists of today?

Of course there are those that don't feel that at all...... but a good discussion should still be possible if we respect each others opinion.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say it's a "powerful" album, myself.
When I think of powerful Morrissey songs, I think of the soaring emotion on 'Now My Heart is Full' or the completely convincing anger of 'Speedway', for example. I'm not convinced by the anger or the lyrics of 'I'm Not a Man' in the same way, but I love it nonetheless.
For me, the new album has a consistent "atmosphere" and I think that's the sign of a great album. Vauxhall & I has that consistent atmosphere of loss and profound melancholy, I think. It gives you the feeling that the songs were all written in a specific space and time and emotional place and because it's a compelling atmosphere you fall into the album as you would a great novel or film. World Peace has that, too. There's the aching quality of Morrissey tapping into a romantic culture, as he did with the dying England stuff in the previous century - here the songs constantly allude to Latin America.
It's just a very compelling album, I think. It's like a patchwork of lots of bits that keep jumping out at you and lodging themselves in your brains - the vocal melodies, Mrs Shufflewick, that clarinet(?) on Oboe Concerto, the way Moz sings "Kiss me all over the play-hay-hay-hace!", the despair of Scandinavia and hatred/love of an entire subcontinent that turns on a knife-edge of narcissistic love, the musical break in Earth is the Loneliest Planet, the rap on Neal Cassady, the gorgeous melody on Drag the River, the almost unbearable melancholy of Mountjoy, the lyrics "A swagger hides the fear in here", "I was bored in a fjord", "Pinned to a crime in Trondheim", so many more.

It does have a godawful shit cover, though.

 

[Velvis]

...... but a good discussion should still be possible if we respect each others opinion.

Good luck with that one!

Anyway, I agree, here's my tuppence worth...

World Peace actually sounds at peace with itself. Nothing sounds forced or unnatural. The band are playing confidently, they are playing as a unit at last. The album sounds like a 'whole entity' and therefore can stand repeated listenings, it just sort of flows.

 

[keene]

I wouldn't say it's a "powerful" album, myself.
When I think of powerful Morrissey songs, I think of the soaring emotion on 'Now My Heart is Full' or the completely convincing anger of 'Speedway', for example. I'm not convinced by the anger or the lyrics of 'I'm Not a Man' in the same way, but I love it nonetheless.
For me, the new album has a consistent "atmosphere" and I think that's the sign of a great album. Vauxhall & I has that consistent atmosphere of loss and profound melancholy, I think. It gives you the feeling that the songs were all written in a specific space and time and emotional place and because it's a compelling atmosphere you fall into the album as you would a great novel or film. World Peace has that, too. There's the aching quality of Morrissey tapping into a romantic culture, as he did with the dying England stuff in the previous century - here the songs constantly allude to Latin America.
It's just a very compelling album, I think. It's like a patchwork of lots of bits that keep jumping out at you and lodging themselves in your brains - the vocal melodies, Mrs Shufflewick, that clarinet(?) on Oboe Concerto, the way Moz sings "Kiss me all over the play-hay-hay-hace!", the despair of Scandinavia and hatred/love of an entire subcontinent that turns on a knife-edge of narcissistic love, the musical break in Earth is the Loneliest Planet, the rap on Neal Cassady, the gorgeous melody on Drag the River, the almost unbearable melancholy of Mountjoy, the lyrics "A swagger hides the fear in here", "I was bored in a fjord", "Pinned to a crime in Trondheim", so many more.

It does have a godawful shit cover, though.

Yes....great description, thanks.

 

[keene]

Good luck with that one!

Anyway, I agree, here's my tuppence worth...

World Peace actually sounds at peace with itself. Nothing sounds forced or unnatural. The band are playing confidently, they are playing as a unit at last. The album sounds like a 'whole entity' and therefore can stand repeated listenings, it just sort of flows.

It really does flow with confidence...thanks.

 

[Dabb hands]

"...madder, badder, and two f***s it doth not give."
- one reviewer said.

 

[mozmic_dancer]

I think it's the storytelling and just the classical themes in general of lost, loneliness, death and ultimately hope.

 

[wastelandofyourhead]

Good production. Wider arrangement than the more recent moz-fare. His voice is able to shine through more than in the chug-rock. Lovely sounding themes with much typical Morrissey phrasing and cynicism. I can't say it is my absolute favourite, but I can say I am happy to receive it.

Even though I placed it in a ranking in the other thread, it will take me years to know where it really places for me within the Morrissey canon.

 

[marred]

It's a Morrissey album.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

It's a Morrissey album.

Thumbs up for that one, sir!

 

[Dabb hands]

Thumbs up for that one, sir!

(...I may miss your little kitten icon; It was so cheerfully out of place -)

 

[bhops]

The production. The production is just so lovely and crammed full of lovely little details. Caring.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

(...I may miss your little kitten icon; It was so cheerfully out of place -)

Thank you. Go onto Youtube and search Bubs the cat. You will not be disappointed.

 

[fredkocherpepsi]

The production. The production is just so lovely and crammed full of lovely little details. Caring.

I agree, and that was going to be my answer. His best production in a long time.

 

[realitybites]

The nursery chimes at the opening of the album/title track symbolizes the government's desire to pacify the masses... lull us to sleep... like Marx's opiate for the masses... so that we are subdued and unconscious and will not protest.

These little musical symbols scattered throughout the album make it a masterpiece.

 

[Anonymous]

The nursery chimes at the opening of the album/title track... lull us to sleep...

Indeed.

 

[realitybites]

Oh and the lockstep marching sound on that same track--brilliant.

 

[keene]

Oh and the lockstep marching sound on that same track--brilliant.

Yes...like someone noted... "the patchwork of bits and pieces that jump out at you and lodge themselves in your brain."

 

[Anonymous]

Oh and the lockstep marching sound on that same track--brilliant.

That symbolizes the government's attempts to lockstep march us into our sleep... like Marx's opiate of the masses.
Masterpiece.

 

[Anaesthesine]

That voice - my god, that voice.