So, yet another Morrissey Greatest Hits to add to the pile. However, of them all this release offers as little, by way of education, to the casual admirer (if such a thing exists) as it does the dedicated Morrissey devotee. The tracklisting is devised, literally, from his greatest hits, with each song placing within the top 20 singles chart upon its original release. So four tracks are taken from 2006’s Ringleader Of The Tormentors, four from You Are The Quarry, two from Viva Hate, two new tracks, one from Bona Drag, one from Vauxhall and I and one from Live at Earls Court. Whilst this content is all very pleasant, the result is more a concise précis of the past four years, due to his recent resurgence in popularity, than it is of a solo career spanning 20 years.
This single disc release appears to be new label Decca’s attempt to appeal to newer fans, in addition to exploiting a fiercely dedicated fan base, at a time where Morrissey is, arguably, as publicly popular as he has ever been. The decision for it to be made from purely commercial single sales means it naturally omits many of Morrissey’s earlier key moments, including ‘November Spawned A Monster’ and ‘The National Front Disco’ to name just two, which can be found on other ‘Best Ofs’.
The two new tracks featured may offer a potential hint toward the direction of the new album, slated for an autumn release, but if they do, it won’t exactly be eye watering. Both tracks, while giving those laying cold turkey in their icy winter beds a quick but empty ‘hit’, will do little to set the chart alight. ‘That’s How People Grow Up’ thunders through with a strong pop hook similar in its manner to ‘I Just Want To See The Boy Happy’, but lacks the finesse and sparkle of the man’s greatest works. The bass heavy ‘All You Need Is Me’ just clatters through like a drunken skinhead in an antique china shop, arms flailing franticly. However, Morrissey is the sort of artist that thrives when faced with adversity. Down in the ditch without financial backing in 2004 he released the make or break You Are The Quarry album, one of his strongest to date. Back in 1994 the tender and funereal Vauxhall And I put paid to a series of personal losses. Hopefully these new tracks are just the excess throwaway currency one tosses toward a subway busker on the way back to the airport, the real folding money unveiled for us all to see come the autumn.
If you don’t already own the last two releases and are seeking a potted history of the past four years this one may be for you. If you are one of those pedantic Morrissey collectors, a limited two-disc live version is available for you. But, if you are neither then do yourself a favour - find out for yourself why Morrissey is the most unique and talented singer-songwriter ever to come out of Britain and buy Bona Drag, Vauxhall and I or Your Arsenal.
Create your own Morrissey Best Of
The one reviewed above is completely pointless. So, off the top my head, here is my suggestion:
Suedehead
Everyday Is Like Sunday
Hairdresser On Fire
Interesting Drug
The National Front Disco
Certain People I Know
The More You Ignore Me....
Hold On To Your Friends
Sunny
Boxers
Alma Matters
Irish Blood, English Heart
The First of the Gang To Die
Let Me Kiss You
You Have Killed Me
There Is a Light (Live At Earls Court)
Would have been MUCH better!
true
That is indeed a much better tracklisting, although I personally think Last Of The Famous International Playboys and November Spawned A Monster should be on any proper Morrissey "best of" compilation.
I agree with the review, but can't resist pointing out that Quarry came out in 2004 and not in 2000.
well...
that error was purposeful. it was done to check that the readers are in fact reading the content.
you clearly are. well done.
x
That's a much better tracklisting
maybe throw in Trouble Loves Me and Life Is A Pigsty as well.
Although I don't think they were actually singles, they're still amongst his best solo work.
Meh.
yes MUCH better
But Late Night Maudlin Street is the best thing he ever wrote, solo or as a Smith, IMHO.
I mean, "Me without clothes? Well, a nation turns its back and GAGS". Genius!
On the cover
is he sniffing his own rose-scented shit?
Recent 'Best Of' I made someone (yes I AM that big a geek!)
Went something like this
'Losing In Front Of Your Home Crowd : A Guide To Morrissey'
The National Front Disco
Irish Blood, English Heart
Boxers
Now My Heart Is Full
A Swallow On My Neck
November Spawned A Monster
Certain People I Know
Hold On To Your Friends
Life Is A Pigsty
Sunny
Suedehead
The Boy Racer
The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get
Trouble Loves Me
Sing Your Life
First Of The Gang To Die
Dear God, Please Help Me
I've Changed My Plea To Guilty
I grant you there are quite a few B-sides and album tracks but still - TUNES!
I don't really have a problem with this Greatest Hits thing. After all,a Greatest Hits is meant to be a collection of an artists biggest hits, and that's what this is. I think he'd have been slagged either way, Greatest Hits or Best Of. Sounds like it was a contractual thing with Decca.
More importantly, the new stuff he played at The Roundhouse is ace, especially Something Is Squeezing My Skull and Mam Lay Softly On The Riverbed.
^
This is a good best of. Glad I am not the only one who does this. Made a double disk Mars Volta best of recently, cracking editting needed to make it link together.
I know, I am a herectic for splitting a concept album up but fucking sue me.
Concept albums
Deserve to be split up
Dana Gould's Clown Fucker was the best thing to come out of Morrissey, and at that point he could si
Nevermind that the back stays the back band, apparently, the simple note of calling them, "the band" or "the guy or guys or girls or girls and or possible guys and or unics and or larve who put to gether that shit that my sexy overpushed, over acted, generic template songs that your willing to pay fifty to a hundred dollars to see me, oh and shell 20 to thirty every time I go and release a bunch of songs you allready own in, oh fuck yhea - a different order - just for the kids, all about the kids, got to love them kids...
...Look I cant say I'm an expert on Morrissey, I certianly havent heard any sizeable portion of his work and to his credit, if he is writing those songs he does have a decent template set he works from; and when you become a pop star of certian perportions, you kinda have to in order to spit out the kind of volume that was normal for an artist who didnt have to worry about eating and living, who also still had to do art if anything because what made his original work special had lost its conontation somewhere between the limo and the suite, and it didnt seem right that he had created a body of work that had jack shit to do with him any more. Either way their (reccord company) is milking the greatist hits line, and you damned well know there going to get every drop and when that runs dry there going to cut it open and take the glands, and after that just lop off the mutilated flesh and throw that on the fire. But that's what they do, Morrissey could be the most valid singer songwriter of akinment to Jesus Christ in passion and soul, but somewhere along the line he signed that dotted line that said he was worth money and that he could get this money if he signed to the terms he was no longer a person but an asset to be used to make money and if that stoped he would no longer be worth shit... whatever. I never got why fans go out and buy these compolations when they own the initial releases, and new fans who are looking to familiarize with the songs that were made familiar to others as singles other wise known as hits* You throw some b-sides and unreleased material together you have a viable compolation like what Mark Lanegan did a year or so back, tem bucks grabs any curious looker a brief go through of what he thought made an adiquate history of the band and if you care, ten bucks gets you soemthing to throw on at parties and a technical two track EP, which I thought was worth it, those things are on the internet the first day and if you think the mini-gouge for the shit we were already paid up on, I doubt he would give a shit... course I doubt Morrissey does either, I bet he cares a helluva lot less in that royalties alone could keep him in his accustomed style for the next several hundred years...
It's kind of insulting to people if you think about it; you, my fans, the people who validated my claim to the reccord company that if they would reccord me, you would buy it, then you my fans said you didnt care, I could charge the price of three of my albums, well, two once I realy got there, and that was cool with you... now for you I give you... what you allready paid for, and you, yes... [i]you[/i] can pay for them again, now go to your bank, withdraw your money, and give it to these nice men who are going to give you; a tiny fragment of several things, yes, you own, and now you can RE-own that which you own, only once over, if you realy cared about my music, my art *sniffle*, you would take just a small fraction of your money, and that would let you own, once more, yes a owning of x2, you WILL BE THE X2 MORRISSEY FAN, PEOPLE WILL STARE AT YOU WALKING DOWN THE STREET! They will all turn and say, my god, its the x2 morrissey fan, and they will love you, like you love me, and you will love me enough to buy two copies, one to own, one to own again, and ONE MORE, to own and POST on your wall, so that you can see my image from all angles of the room you would be owning x3 YES X FUCKING 3 in. in. iiinn.
Personaly I think the best Morrissey song is Clown Fucker by Dana Gould, and the reason that worked so well is exactly what I put up there in that he his songs were componitized and pieced together like Shakespear's comedies or fucking happy meals at Mcdonalds.
*(lost it's f[i]ucking[/i] meaning when hits were no longer selected by music directers as the good songs they heard and found and thought deserved play on the radio, and became the songs delivered to sed radiostation by sed reccord compay of a cirtian group of reccord companys and were "sold" to the directors who would pick the ones they thought fit with the demographic and then released them over time rotating the shit out of it often for the sole reason because under the table was a memo saying just how much they would appreciate if track x and y and c and b got 60 spins in the next week and the following two weeks after that upon which we could furthur work out this apreciation thing... course, getting paid to spin a track over and over is realy what they do anyhow, difference is that the order is adjusted, they spin the same 50 to 60 tracks every 6 months to a year anyhow.)
the real value of the album
I didnt read the whole review before I posted, I steared away from any of this kind of thing since I figured it might be too cleche and there are so many other points to hit on but goddamn thats just fucking perfect ->
"Both tracks, while giving those laying cold turkey in their icy winter beds a quick but empty ‘hit’"
But I figure I should note that since technicaly there was something to gain (reletive term) that this dosent fit the quintessential pressence of these things, but I hope you get my point.