Which Album Do You Think Is Best, Overall?
- Thread starter Pachinko
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Vauxhall and I. Not only does it contain his best song (Now My Heart is Full), it also has the strongest group of songs overall and marks the beginning of the second phase of his career, in which he has succeeded in defining a distinct style that needs to be appreciated without using The Smiths as a frame of reference. As good as the early albums were, it is still difficult to listen to them without getting the feeling that he is groping his way back towards something that had been taken away, and they just can't match The Smiths. Hence, they do get something of a second-rate solution air to them.
VAI changed all that - you just had to start thinking of him as more of a crooner, a sort of rocked up British 21st century Serge Gainsboro.
I'd rate You are the Quarry a good second, followed by Viva Hate.
I was surprised to see so many supporting Southpaw Grammar, which in my opinion is his weakest album. Very feeble song material, in my frank opinion. Followed by Ringleader, which suffers from the same shortcoming.
cheers
VAI changed all that - you just had to start thinking of him as more of a crooner, a sort of rocked up British 21st century Serge Gainsboro.
I'd rate You are the Quarry a good second, followed by Viva Hate.
I was surprised to see so many supporting Southpaw Grammar, which in my opinion is his weakest album. Very feeble song material, in my frank opinion. Followed by Ringleader, which suffers from the same shortcoming.
cheers
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Virgil Tracy
Good Evening West 'am!
ganglord in ny
New Member
Of the two Arsenal....V&I is my fav for now though
Sicy
Smother Me Mother
Can someone post a list of all of his studio solo albums?
I am getting back into him, listened to a few for the first time now, Vauxhall and I, I liked that one, and I like his first couple of solo albums after the Smiths, but I'm in the middle of the Quarry and I'm not feelin it. Can someone suggest one with more ROCKIN type songs rather than the slower ballads?
I am getting back into him, listened to a few for the first time now, Vauxhall and I, I liked that one, and I like his first couple of solo albums after the Smiths, but I'm in the middle of the Quarry and I'm not feelin it. Can someone suggest one with more ROCKIN type songs rather than the slower ballads?
Track for track as a whole, probably Your Arsenal. But each one has its charm. I thought ROTT was very good, but then again, I also like the oft-maligned Maladjusted.
Except the new one; yikes. I don't even think Moz likes it too much.
I always make up alternate running orders for the albums and like those versions better. I think all his songs are great individually but his one weakness lies in the assembly.
Except the new one; yikes. I don't even think Moz likes it too much.
I always make up alternate running orders for the albums and like those versions better. I think all his songs are great individually but his one weakness lies in the assembly.
Biru is very pretty.
Sicy
Smother Me Mother
What does ROTT stand for? Sorry.
I will give Your Arsenal a try next.
Wow, I actually LOVE the new one. SISMS, All you need, Black Cloud, Paris, Carol.. etc.. I dont think there's a song on there that I really dont like!
ROTT = Ringleader of the Tormentors
I think that Vauxhall and I is his best album, but my favorite would have to go to Southpaw Grammar. Kill Uncle is also very dear to me.
don't know if this is the right topic for this, but i feel like saying it anyway... I hate that I feel this way, but I barely like You Are The Quarry. The only two songs I'm not sick of hearing on there is I'm Not Sorry and All The Lazy Dykes, which are very beautiful and quite underrated. These two songs also seem the most like what we have been used to before his comeback-- less flashy, but more genuine in emotion. However, every track is pretty rockin', and I suppose I just gotta appreciate them for being so damn catchy. The b-sides are also quite interesting with their latino influences, which I wish he would have done more with. anyone else kinda sorta feel this way?
I think that Vauxhall and I is his best album, but my favorite would have to go to Southpaw Grammar. Kill Uncle is also very dear to me.
don't know if this is the right topic for this, but i feel like saying it anyway... I hate that I feel this way, but I barely like You Are The Quarry. The only two songs I'm not sick of hearing on there is I'm Not Sorry and All The Lazy Dykes, which are very beautiful and quite underrated. These two songs also seem the most like what we have been used to before his comeback-- less flashy, but more genuine in emotion. However, every track is pretty rockin', and I suppose I just gotta appreciate them for being so damn catchy. The b-sides are also quite interesting with their latino influences, which I wish he would have done more with. anyone else kinda sorta feel this way?
biru
get the f* out of my lawn
D
Dave
Guest
Worm
Taste the diffidence
I think "Your Arsenal" is the best solo album. It is a strong, almost flawless collection of songs. "You're The One For Me, Fatty" might've been chopped or replaced-- "Jack The Ripper", a B-side after the album came out, would have worked better to end Side 1 with "Certain People" starting Side 2. Otherwise it's excellent.
I think it has something the others don't, which is a defiant, all-conquering attitude akin-- in spirit-- to the run of singles The Smiths had from "Panic" to "Sheila Take A Bow". In sound, I think this album (really starting in the 1991 "Kill Uncle" tour) is the one that breaks definitively from The Smiths, not "Vauxhall". Mick Ronson is Morrissey's best producer, hands down. Every other album, "Vauxhall" included, sounds as if the producers are elevating mediocre guitar tracks into fully-formed songs. "Your Arsenal" would sound great as a collection of demos. I don't think that's true of any other album. Maybe "Quarry".
"Glamorous Glue", "We'll Let You Know", "National Front Disco", and "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" are among his most interesting lyrics. "We Hate It" and "Certain People I Know" are among the funniest and most whimsical. "Tomorrow" is just a great pop tune. "Fatty" as I said I can do without but I can just about tap my foot to it. And "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" and "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" are unusual Morrissey songs in that they're both somewhat optimistic and outward-looking. The album is the sound of Morrissey flexing his muscles, angry and disillusioned as ever, but up to the challenge of spitting in the world's eye.
The smartest, most nuanced, most sophisticated, and easily the most quotable is "Viva Hate". I think Qvist is right to say it's too quasi-Smithsy, so you almost have to disqualify it from the top spot on those grounds. Then again, Vini Reilly is the best guitarist Morrissey has worked with (second to Ronson if you count him) since Johnny Marr. He's probably the only guitarist who was an artist in his own right and not a hired gun. And maybe before we call the Stephen Street stuff a "weaker version" of The Smiths we should note that he practically was a member of The Smiths. Not such a bad thing to listen to it as the fifth Smiths album, is it?
I share the love for "Vauxhall and I" but in my opinion the album is hobbled by a couple of less than stellar tracks ("Spring-Heeled Jim", "Hold On To Your Friends", "Lifeguard Sleeping"), the aforementioned murky production, and, finally and most off-puttingly, it's the first appearance of a newer, deeper strain of Morrissey's pop star martyr complex. Sure, it was always there, but never so pervasively in an album and never so humorless. Didn't ruin the album by any stretch, but it was a sign of things to come. Bitter, isolated, misanthropic Morrissey wasn't far away.
And once again, looking at his career after "Vauxhall", we're left to wonder just how badly the court case damaged him. The man who wrote "Sorrow Will Come In The End" was not the artist who wrote the haunting "Little Man, What Now?" Can you imagine "Little Man, What Now?" written in 1997 or 2004?
Mid-afternoon nostalgia television show
The pigs in their suits hacked away at you
Dragged your face in shit
Friday nights, 1969
Disemboweled and forgotten
Left for dead
One day the whores will get me too
Etc.
I think it has something the others don't, which is a defiant, all-conquering attitude akin-- in spirit-- to the run of singles The Smiths had from "Panic" to "Sheila Take A Bow". In sound, I think this album (really starting in the 1991 "Kill Uncle" tour) is the one that breaks definitively from The Smiths, not "Vauxhall". Mick Ronson is Morrissey's best producer, hands down. Every other album, "Vauxhall" included, sounds as if the producers are elevating mediocre guitar tracks into fully-formed songs. "Your Arsenal" would sound great as a collection of demos. I don't think that's true of any other album. Maybe "Quarry".
"Glamorous Glue", "We'll Let You Know", "National Front Disco", and "Seasick, Yet Still Docked" are among his most interesting lyrics. "We Hate It" and "Certain People I Know" are among the funniest and most whimsical. "Tomorrow" is just a great pop tune. "Fatty" as I said I can do without but I can just about tap my foot to it. And "You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side" and "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" are unusual Morrissey songs in that they're both somewhat optimistic and outward-looking. The album is the sound of Morrissey flexing his muscles, angry and disillusioned as ever, but up to the challenge of spitting in the world's eye.
The smartest, most nuanced, most sophisticated, and easily the most quotable is "Viva Hate". I think Qvist is right to say it's too quasi-Smithsy, so you almost have to disqualify it from the top spot on those grounds. Then again, Vini Reilly is the best guitarist Morrissey has worked with (second to Ronson if you count him) since Johnny Marr. He's probably the only guitarist who was an artist in his own right and not a hired gun. And maybe before we call the Stephen Street stuff a "weaker version" of The Smiths we should note that he practically was a member of The Smiths. Not such a bad thing to listen to it as the fifth Smiths album, is it?
I share the love for "Vauxhall and I" but in my opinion the album is hobbled by a couple of less than stellar tracks ("Spring-Heeled Jim", "Hold On To Your Friends", "Lifeguard Sleeping"), the aforementioned murky production, and, finally and most off-puttingly, it's the first appearance of a newer, deeper strain of Morrissey's pop star martyr complex. Sure, it was always there, but never so pervasively in an album and never so humorless. Didn't ruin the album by any stretch, but it was a sign of things to come. Bitter, isolated, misanthropic Morrissey wasn't far away.
And once again, looking at his career after "Vauxhall", we're left to wonder just how badly the court case damaged him. The man who wrote "Sorrow Will Come In The End" was not the artist who wrote the haunting "Little Man, What Now?" Can you imagine "Little Man, What Now?" written in 1997 or 2004?
Mid-afternoon nostalgia television show
The pigs in their suits hacked away at you
Dragged your face in shit
Friday nights, 1969
Disemboweled and forgotten
Left for dead
One day the whores will get me too
Etc.
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Sicy
Smother Me Mother
Who let the cats in?
Beethoven Was Deaf
lol, is that an album or are you calling me deaf?
