, isn't as much of a step forward as I had hoped after the great You Are the Quarry (Platinum Edition)*. If you like Morrissey, the new CD is as good, if not better, than his early solo work. But the CD as a whole doesn't hold together for me as well as You Are the Quarry.Don't get me wrong: Morrissey is, generally speaking, clearly in command of his skills and is harnessing a new, harder edge to his benefit.** But while the production is nice, the songs themselves fall flat. I like "You Have Killed Me," and find some entertaining, including the flawed "At Last I Am Born." But the duds outweigh the strong tracks on this disc, making it a much weaker album than YATQ (where I simply skip over the hamfisted "America is Not The World." Yes, Morrissey, I know, thanks for the observation, hearing it once is enough).
Truth: if you're a Morrissey fan, go ahead and pick this up. But if you're only a casual fan, or looking for something as good as YATQ, don't: get the "You Have Killed Me" single via your physical or legal download medium of choice and call it good. Sadly, for me, it's only a 5/10.
* (If you haven't bought YATQ yet, the Platinum Edition tacks on nine b-sides, saving you the effort of buying singles, as well as a DVD with a video and live videos, etc. It's a better deal all the way around.)
** To that end, I'd also have to recommend his complementary live releases, both of which I enjoyed, Live at Earls Court
, which you can pick up for about ten bucks on Amazon, and the DVD, Who Put The 'M' in Manchester?, which shows him at the top of his game.Tags:
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