For someone as traditional and stringent to the "Old Guard" as Morrissey, I can't believe he's allowing this release to be in digital format only.
There was a time when he treated the release of every physical single with incredibly precious detail: from paper labels on the wax; to which side the sleeve's opening was set; to fonts, hues, and crops.
I think it's safe to say he let go of all art direction with "Southpaw Grammar" and he stopped caring after that. (That said, the "Years of Refusal" cover was a stroke of genius.)
But no physical packaging on the initial release from the first single of his LP? ... and the debut on his new label? Harvest or Moz are not putting their best feet forward with this decision.
Of course, the skeptic in me says these songs will get traditional vinyl and CD releases a couple months from now. And guess what--completists will have re-buy the recordings even though the digital downloads were downloaded.
In short, this just seems like a sloppy campaign by Harvest. These are some of the reasons to support that...
1. What's With All This Digital Download Rubbish?
No one really knows what the singles or LP cover will look like (will there even be a proper vinyl/CD LP?). Will this be a 100% downloaded campaign?
2. Who's in Charge of Publicity at Harvest?
The wheat-paste posters around LA and NYC have been useless to get the campaign's word out (other than a couple fans posting the images here and Instagram.) True-to-You hasn't even commented on said posters--Morrissey-SoLow is the only news outlet reporting on the street-art campaign.
3. Tour Support? What Tour Support?
There was a time when Morrissey's concert openers were highly looked forward to, almost a treat unto themselves: Big Sandy, David Johansen, Libertines, El Vez, The Smoking Popes, Gallon Drunk... it was different with every tour, sometimes every city. Now, the only common denominator has been Kristeen Young since the Tormentors tour. When he does go wild and invites new faces, it's old faces Tom Jones and Cliff Richard. This isn't necessarily Harvest's fault, but there must be someone there in charge of touring details.
4. Social Media is Free (So Why is Harvest Not Taking Advantage of It?)
There has been no lead-up in the media: No appearances on the late night talk show circuit, no radio airplay, no adverts. No one's even taking advantage of social media. Go find Johnny Marr's Facebook account--that's what one calls interaction. In his defense, Marr does all of his own posting, Morrissey would never do anything so crass, but there is still opportunity for a closer look at our hero.
5. Is the "World Peace" Cover Just the Beginning?
The embarrassingly amateurish Photoshopped "World Peace" cover. Some apologists here are saying this is of little importance, but its poor workmanship is a sign of what's to come from Harvest. Who's manning the art department over at Harvest HQ?
I don't see this relationship between Old Misery and Harvest working out well.
The great debate between Viva and I thinking his life is an opera or a book will be solved!
