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  1. I gave up around You are the Quarry, You are missing 2 superb albums (at least) in Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I. He just likes to be controversial I think, that hasn’t changed since The Smiths.

  2. Yes. The silly old cow.

    Was a fan up to the hugely overrated Vauxhall. He’s since become depressingly vulgar and incredibly stupid. He probably was before… but at least made some decent records. His voice now sounds like Vic Reeves when they’re doing Mulligan and O’Hare.

  3. Not in the slightest bit excited about his new album – just got bored with the repetitive nature of his solo work.

    And reading his quotes in the BBC piece, he is saying things that I find sad, shocking and surprising despite the fact that he has been a grade a arse for at least the 15 years and I would expect his to say stupid things.

    “I hate rape… But in many cases, one looks at the circumstances and thinks that the person who is considered a victim is merely disappointed.”

    Really? You’ve discussed it with that many ‘victims’ to be able to make a confident dismissal of many ‘victims’ as merely disappointed?

  4. Lost interest after ‘Your Arsenal’. I was an absolutely huge fan up until then and I now have feelings that border on antipathy.

    A good lesson for me re: take no heroes*. ‘Divide the person from the work’ yadayada, but I can’t seem to do that with Morrissey. He displays none of the sensitivity, joy and playfulness that he once had. (Or maybe working with Marr brought those qualities out in him?)

    *Relatedly- everyone grows out of their Sean Hughes phase. Except for Sean Hughes.

  5. Yes, he’s been on my mind. I intend to give his new album a listen for old times sake.

    I gave up on him after You Are the Quarry but I liked that new single, it was a change from the sludge rock.

    I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt when he’s being quoted out of context

  6. I think that whereas in The Smiths his misanthropic demeanour provided the perfect grit for the joyful music, his solo career has seen his joyless worldview infect his music which appears with each album grimmer and less essential. I was onboard for the ‘comeback’ of Quarry and Tormentors, but since then it’s been downhill very fast.

    And what’s iconoclastic at 20 is rather less endearing in your mid-fifties.

  7. I fear as he ages all that nasty Irish blood is overwhelming his delicate English heart.
    Thing about Moz is, he stirred a whole generation who heard his words and thought “that’s exactly how I feel!”, but I believe it was very much a case of stopped clock syndrome: he’s down the bottom of a well of solipsism and when his thoughts sometimes coincide with theirs people see empathy where there is none, like entering a room at the exact moment a broken clock happens to be telling the correct time..

    • I saw Morrissey (“I don’t perform, seals perform”) performing Spent The Day In Bed on The Graham Norton Show. I thought it was awful. If the rest of the album’s worse I doubt I’ll bother. I think, as with so many artists the fertile imagination of his youth inspired some great work while the jaded resignation of his middle age has nothing interesting to say.

  9. I find myself agreeing more or less with his point about erasing Spacey completely from the new film, a decision based solely on money, the losing of. The other comments are naive at best, stupid and uninformed at worst. “I hate rape” – well cheers for that incisive condemnation, Steven; I must say I was wavering a bit, but thankfully, you’ve clarified things for me.

  10. Never had a Morrissey phase. Always thought he was a prize prat. At best his misanthropy was an affected posture designed to sell records to the disaffected; now, his anti-establishment rantings are merely evidence of irrelevant and terminal self-delusion.

    Shame, ‘cos The Smiths made some good tunes.

  11. I find I disagree with most pop artists, so that’s never been a problem, but the rape comments, the autobiography, the band T shirts (what happens if one refuses to wear one or fancies a sausage?) and the plodding tripe he’s been releasing since Maladjusted leave me pretty cold. Still craving a vinyl copy of Beethoven Was Deaf tho…

  13. I mean who- who??- listens intently to Moz these days? He is utterly irrelevant & he needs to shut his bitter old gob. I, too, stopped listening after Viva Hate.

  15. I was a Smiths fan in the mid 80s – I had a Queen is Dead t-shirt and I duly bought Viva Hate when it came out as I would have done any new Smiths release. Suedehead was good – and interesting to hear Vini Reilly working with Mozzer – but Every Day is Like Sunday sounded like a Freddie Starr parody of The Smiths and I found the album rather queasy and grim. Played it maybe 3 or 4 times, got rid of the dismal thing and never bought anything else Mozzer did. Time to move on. Viva Hate was 1988? That year I got into New Order, Happy Mondays, Acid House Music and all sorts of other groovy stuff instead. I can’t say I’ve sat and listened to any Smiths since never mind keep up with his solo stuff. Heard odd bits that I liked, Last of the International Playboys and English Blood Irish Heart for instance but I really haven’t given a flying fuck what Mozzer does or says for the past 29 years – and given the shit he comes out with nowadays I’m glad I switched off when I did.

  17. Not me, still on board the Moz bus! Was late to the Smiths, remember seeing them do Shelia Take a Bow on TOTP and then it seemed 10 minutes later they were finished. Suedehead was an awesome solo start. The records have been up and down but who’s haven’t over a 30 year spread? The new one is growing on me and tickets are already purchased for the new tour. See you down the front 🙂

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