Which morrissey album is best

Vauxhall And I 5. Kill Uncle 6. Low In High School 8. Ringleader Of The Tormentors Years Of Refusal Last edited: Mar 31, Anony Guest. Not heard it yet but from the pre-release instant grats, I know that it has at least three really good songs. Whether it can climb any higher remains to be seen Mozmar Well-Known Member.

Cooley said:. The Chameleon KingGamma. Not sure but something like this. Viva Hate 2. Vauxhall And I 4. Southpaw Grammar 7. Years Of Refusal 9. Low In High School California Son. Mozmar said:. Well, yes it's only been out for a day Anonymous said:.

Post reply. Insert quotes…. Similar threads. Famous when dead Sep 29, General Discussion 8 9 Replies Views 14K. Oct 6, Eldritch. Rank Morrissey's 21st century LPs. Replies 67 Views 5K. Still, the sessions, produced by Street who also served as co-writer, although Reilly claimed to have written a majority of the tracks , lasted a healthy three months.

Opener "Alsatian Cousin" announced the break: a crackling landline of guitar, an exquisite pause before the thud. The short character sketch "Little Man, What Now? Despite the title the record was originally pressed as Education in Reverse , you can see where the punches have been pulled. Everyone expected allusions to the Smiths.

Accompanied by strings alone, he ends the track with four readings of the line "I love you more than life". A song titled "Break Up the Family" begged to be seen through the lens of dissolution.

Again, though: declarations of love and a push towards hope, with complacent drum programming throughout. Viva Hate also contains two knockout combinations of melody and muscular guitar.

Morrissey milks his questions for maximum poignancy, draping the punctuation over the full-bodied arrangement. Each iteration of the chord changes gains power. He ends the song chirping "it was a good lay" over and over, a surprising bit of bluntness matched by a low-frequency sting Street keeps punching through the mix.

Wisely chosen as the lead single, it ascended to the number five position. Viva Hate was a best-case scenario for fans. It presented Morrissey in a full variety of poses -- from balladeer to injured party to rabblerouser -- and musical contexts.

It was accessible but not excessively worried over. It made room for anthems and digressions the seven-minute Van the Man-style "Late Night, Maudlin Street," for many a highlight, to these ears a jumble of underwritten bridges. Having proved his merit as a solo concern, Morrissey retrenched as a singles artist. After crawling on toms for the first half, Spencer Corbin joins the rock attack with wide-open high hat and a four-on-the-floor march. With a total thematic shift, the line "to be finished would be a relief" could serve as subtext for a Bond actor nearing the end of his term.

Southpaw Grammar is peak Morrissey. His outsider advocacy and bared-teeth grin is backed by a musical unit honed by world touring, eager to follow its chief to the ends of acceptable song length. This is the record with a two-minute drum solo in the middle and a ten-minute song at each end.

There are no ballads, there is no self-conscious reaching for either his flash or jangle periods. Instead, he and the band mixed the two -- with startling portions of orchestral instrumentation and proggy experiment tossed in -- with the result being a stirring, full-throated rock record. Speaking of throats, Morrissey -- always prone to illness -- suffered from colds during the sessions, resulting in some compellingly ragged vocals in spots. Here and throughout the album, Whyte contributed backing vocals by howling into the pickup of his Bigsby guitar: a remarkable effect.

Album closer "Southpaw" straddles the tonal poles of guitar, with gravedigging clusters alternating with high-end sonar pings. As for the man himself, he put forth perhaps his most lacerating texts. The bulk of the record is given over to less than sympathetic portraits of kids unaware of an brutal advancing future. Like a Holden Caulfied uninterested in -- or incapable of -- saving any others, Morrissey positively sneers at the narrowed horizons of his objects of address.

The subject of "Dagenham Dave" which could be 1. The tune pairs excellently with its b-side, "Nobody Loves Us," with a soaring vocal that resists pity and its complementary references to pie eyes and cake-eaters. Lest the listener share in the snark, "Reader Meets Author" is there guarding the second-track gate. Gone were the fake bruises he wore in February. Southpaw Grammar was a singular achievement: a far-ranging record that circled around well-explicated themes.

But for me, the highs here just hit that little bit harder. The Smiths, after all, had been built on the Moz-Marr axis, a rare partnership of genius-meets-genius skill in which their talents were supremely and equally matched. And unlike Marr, who in the aftermath of their messy divorce was able to carry on working by slipping into the background and project-hopping from band to the next The Pretenders, The The and Electronic, to name but three , Morrissey had to stand by himself, on his own: a float-or-flounder test to be carried out in public.

We're focusing only on original albums, not live projects or collections. Scroll through the below gallery to find out more. Home News. Morrissey Albums Ranked in Order of Moz-ness.