"World Peace Is None Of Your Business" released (UK - July 14, 2014)

You can view the page at http://www.morrissey-solo.com/content/1945-World-Peace-Is-None-Of-Your-Business-released-(UK-July-14-2014)

 

[Velvis]

This is THE album!

This is the first album where I've not secretly missed Johnny Marr's presence.

This is not the sound of Manchester. I can hear a whisper from Manchester but we've properly moved on now. This is the sound of Europe, L.A., Mexico... the WORLD FFS!

The Morrissey Band have finally come into their own on this album, they don't sound like The Smiths, they don't need Stephen Street, Alain Whyte or anyone else from the past.

They have come of age. There is a feeling of confidence on this album that I've not heard before. I'm a musician and I notice these things! I know what I'm f***ing talking about - any more naggings regarding Jesse Tobias role must surely be laid to one side. Let's move on and celebrate FFS!

The playing is relaxed and fantastic on this album. The production is brave and interesting - there's lots of whooshy, squelchy noises here - it's all good and appropriate.

This album is up there with Vauxhall - history will prove me right.

 

[Detritus]

As I have pointed out, if she is already at university then it doesn't matter what her dad or boyfriend said as she made it anyway.

I don't know too many parents who stop caring about their child's academic performance once they've been admitted to university.

 

[Anonymous]

I just downloaded it now on i tunes..tomorrow I'll have it in my earphones while walking in Rome..I'm so excited

 

[realitybites]

As I have pointed out, if she is already at university then it doesn't matter what her dad or boyfriend said as she made it anyway. So why throw herself down the stairs? Perhaps she was doing a degree in Stunt Work? Maybe she had a prosthetic head and it was an assignment?

Also, as Morrissey sings about needing 3 As, I assume he is referring to a UK university and it's therefore unlikely she is Asian American. More likely Home Counties horsey type, I would guess.

Anyway, after songs like Kick The Bride Down the Aisle. Smiler With Knife, Staircase, Neil Cassidy Drops Dead and the like, what are people thinking the next album will have on it? I stick a fiver on the title being If You Bring Bacon Into This House Again I Am Going To Put You Under The Patio, Woman.

I am sure he is singing about an American girl at a US university. Family pressure does not stop once a person is accepted into a university. One has to maintain those grades or get kicked out, lose their scholarships, or worse be ostracized by their perfectionist parents and boyfriends. Perhaps she plans to get in to med or law school. Are you really that naive? Or lacking in imagination? Seriously.

 

[hand in glove]

I am sure he is singing about an American girl at a US university. Family pressure does not stop once a person is accepted into a university. One has to maintain those grades or get kicked out, lose their scholarships, or worse be ostracized by their perfectionist parents and boyfriends. Perhaps she plans to get in to med or law school. Are you really that naive? Or lacking in imagination? Seriously.

I don't think the song is supposed to be taken that seriously - is it? Just curious.

 

[realitybites]

I don't think the song is supposed to be taken that seriously - is it? Just curious.

I'd say it is a tragedy and very serious for the family and friends of those suicides, yes.

Explore more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/opinio...ianAmerican-students-to-suicide/shdaily.shtml

 

[hand in glove]

I'd say it is a tragedy and very serious for the family and friends of those suicides, yes.

Explore more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/opinio...ianAmerican-students-to-suicide/shdaily.shtml

I feel nothing but sorrow for those families, but the song, I believe, is supposed to be more along the lines of Shelia Take A Bow or Is It Really So Strange. That was my point, anyway.

 

[Chickpea]

Also, as Morrissey sings about needing 3 As, I assume he is referring to a UK university and it's therefore unlikely she is Asian American.

I cannot even believe there is a discussion happening about the LITERAL meaning of the minutiae of this song, but I attended a university in the United States, and can I assure you we were graded with an A–D system, to which numerical values (4–0, respectively) were assigned determine overall GPA.

Now that we've settled that matter…

 

[Amy]

I've never heard anyone here suggest any such thing. You are confusing a desire that he maintain that quality with your belief people mean recreate the sound slavishly.

As a few of us have mentioned World Peace is virtually tune less. Not tuneless, tune less. The best intro appears on Staircase, the best chorus appears in Bullfighter, the best theme is on Istanbul, and the best lyric is on I'm Not A Man, which, featuring as it does the moment KY was told she was off the tour, also has the best outro.

Not one of those tracks are fully realised.

This is it. The album is a jumble of disparate elements - flashes of greatness here and there, strong vocals, but not a lot of cohesion musically. There isn't one complete song that screams "single", or is effortlessly enjoyable in the way that "Irish Blood.." or "First of the Gang" were previously. There are no classic pop songs on this album.

 

[Amy]

I am sure he is singing about an American girl at a US university. Family pressure does not stop once a person is accepted into a university. One has to maintain those grades or get kicked out, lose their scholarships, or worse be ostracized by their perfectionist parents and boyfriends. Perhaps she plans to get in to med or law school. Are you really that naive? Or lacking in imagination? Seriously.

American? Why?

 

[Velvis]

There are no 'Hit Singles' on this album.

This is not a pop record - it's the sound of a band comfortable in their own skin. The album for me is a cohesive unit.
I bought the deluxe version but I don't need the extra CD.
Art Hounds sounds uptight - the other bonus songs a bit mediocre. Maybe Scandinavia???

All the good stuff is on the album. The band have matured and come into their own! (...just sayin'!)

 

[Amy]

I cannot even believe there is a discussion happening about the LITERAL meaning of the minutiae of this song, but I attended a university in the United States, and can I assure you we were graded with an A–D system, to which numerical values (4–0, respectively) were assigned determine overall GPA.

Now that we've settled that matter…

I think what Agharta meant is that "three As" in your A-Levels are the entry requirements for the best UK Universities. Once you actually get in, ABC grades aren't generally used because it works on percentages. So for example, if you wanted to study English at Oxford, the requirements are AAA.

 

[esskay]

I don't think the song is supposed to be taken that seriously - is it? Just curious.

Yeah, I don't think Staircase At The University is meant to be taken that seriously and Agharta is being a bit of a tit about it all, BUT...

It is very easy to make sense of the song: the girl gets pressurised to get into the right university (by getting three As), she GETS THREE As, goes to the university, hates it for whatever reasons, kills herself.

i.e. she works so hard to succeed, but on someone else's terms, that even when she does succeed it feels like failure and is unbearable.

Nothing in the song suggests she doesn't get the As.

It is one of the oldest themes in the Morrissey songbook. Essentially another version of these lines, recently quoted by Agharta:

But the person underneath
Where does he go?
Does he slide by the wayside?
Or does he just die ?
And you find that you've organised
Your feelings for people
Who didn't like you then
And do not like you now

It is also another version of these lines, also, I think, cited recently by Agharta:

I was looking for a job and then I found a job
And heaven knows I'm miserable now

This is the most obvious interpretation of the lyrics to this song. The story is an exact reversal of:

So the choice I have made
May seem strange to you
But who asked you anyway?
It's my life to wreck
My own way

The life of the girl in Staircase doesn't belong to her, and she doesn't get to wreck it in her own way: the ultimate Morrissey nightmare.

Agharta will no doubt creep up to insist that the new song is nevertheless no match for the old songs. Who can argue with that? Yet his position isn't aided by his militant doziness.

 

[realitybites]

I feel nothing but sorrow for those families, but the song, I believe, is supposed to be more along the lines of Shelia Take A Bow or Is It Really So Strange. That was my point, anyway.

Insightful social commentary with a comedic twist, is my take on it. I love the song. I don't feel said when I listen to it. I feel like dancing around my apartment like a maniac. Like November Spawned, Mute Witness, Girlfriend in a Coma... serious issues made accessible/approachable through music, wit, careful wordplay. What Moz does best. I think that is what you are kind of saying as well, no?

 

[realitybites]

American? Why?

Because I am American and I am biased. She could be any nationality and race or ethnicity, however. She could be an Israeli Jew.

 

[Chickpea]

I think what Agharta meant is that "three As" in your A-Levels are the entry requirements for the best UK Universities. Once you actually get in, ABC grades aren't generally used because it works on percentages. So for example, if you wanted to study English at Oxford, the requirements are AAA.

Right, I got that, but since Agharta is so concerned about why a student would throw herself down a flight of stairs if she'd already gotten into a university, I thought she might be consoled by knowing that in the US, university students are assigned letter grades.

I can't see why it matters anyway on such a literal level as there's such a thing as artistic license, of course!!

 

[Chickpea]

Insightful social commentary with a comedic twist, is my take on it. I love the song. I don't feel said when I listen to it. I feel like dancing around my apartment like a maniac. Like November Spawned, Mute Witness, Girlfriend in a Coma... serious issues made accessible/approachable through music, wit, careful wordplay. What Moz does best. I think that is what you are kind of saying as well, no?

I agree with every word of this!

 

[Sidnettle]

I cannot even believe there is a discussion happening about the LITERAL meaning of the minutiae of this song, but I attended a university in the United States, and can I assure you we were graded with an A–D system, to which numerical values (4–0, respectively) were assigned determine overall GPA.

Now that we've settled that matter…

is obtaining three As the ideal in an American university, or all the matter settled that he's talking about A levels?

 

[Chickpea]

is obtaining three As the ideal in an American university

Yes—A is the highest grade, and is assigned a score of 4 when figuring averages.

 

[jonnersb]

It's simpler than that. Swap "Earth is the Loneliest Planet" and "Kick the Bride...." for "Forgive Someone" and "One of Our Own" and the album takes on a whole new level of humanity and pathos and moves from being a solid record to verging on the career best. The only other clunker is the title track though it's a good statement and album title. Why's it always the way with our Mozza. He may be genius but a 5 yr old child could do a better track list. "Art Hounds" as an opener would have been a shocking and disastrous inclusion - it is really clunky and think how such a crass, a ham-fisted attack on music writers and their type would have manifested in terrible reviews - deservedly too as it's so plodding - another "The Kid's A Looker".