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Off the record
Evening Standard 12.12.08
Cover boys: his 10th solo album, Years of Refusal, features Morrissey with his tour manager’s baby
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Morrissey and Johnny Marr are “talking”, according to reports this week. It raises very faint hopes of what would be the equivalent of the Led Zeppelin reunion for those who were teenagers in the Eighties: a comeback for The Smiths.
Until that momentous day, guitarist Marr continues to enjoy being a plectrum for hire in younger indie bands such as Modest Mouse and The Cribs, and Morrissey is preparing to release his 10th solo album in February. At an early listen, bursting with vegetarian canapés in a Piccadilly nightclub yesterday, I was one of the first to hear the latest songs keeping the recalcitrant singer away from his glorious past.
The title, Years of Refusal (Polydor/Decca), could almost refer to all the big-money reformation offers that must have fluttered his way since The Smiths split in 1987. On its cover he even manages to look defiant while holding an ickle baby. “It's not Photoshopped. This is my son,” he quipped in his brief introduction. It's actually the son of Morrissey's assistant tour manager.
However, sex, if not reproduction, is here again. “There are explosive kegs between my legs,” he notoriously announced on 2006 track Dear God Please Help Me, and on the standout new song It's Not Your Birthday Any More, the singer, 50 next year, refers to: “The love I give/Right here right now/On the floor”.
Otherwise, this is the least surprising Morrissey album in some time. Two of the 12 tracks appeared on a Greatest Hits album in February: dramatic rocker That's How People Grow Up and All You Need Is Me, a mediocre fast one that appeared to bait his old foe the NME (“There's so much destruction all over the world/And all you can do is complain about me”).
Others have been performed live for at least a year now, including the aggressive opener Something Is Squeezing My Skull, about prescription drug addiction, and Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed, which attacks “spare priggish money men” and “uncivil servants” over
dramatic marching drums.
There are plenty of opportunities for the great loner to sing about being unloved. I'm Okay By Myself is the ear-splitting finale. “I'm throwing my arms around Paris because nobody wants my love,” he swoons on the latest single.
The almost jazzy torch song You Were Good in Your Time sounds like he has pre-emptively written his own epitaph. There's also a more recent Morrissey staple: a Spanish-sounding track, When I Last Spoke to Carol, to cater to his remarkably rabid Latin American fanbase. Its flamenco guitar, brass and Ennio Morricone whistling will be loved or loathed, depending on what continent you live in.
Big, memorable tunes are lacking. Matt Walker's drums are thunderous throughout and heavy guitars are the default sound. The subtler touch of Marr continues to be missed.
Morrissey is selling more albums and concert tickets than ever but this is a reflection of the still-growing appeal of one of rock's true originals, rather than the quality of his most recent music. His greatest songs were written in The Smiths. One more half-good album and all those years of reunion refusal might finally be over.
Morrissey plays the Albert Hall on 11 May (020 7589 8212, www.royalalberthall.com).
NEW ON THE NET
*Still the Christmas novelties keep coming. The Hives have clearly studied at the Pogues' school of seasonal songwriting, producing a festive face-off with Cyndi Lauper called A Christmas Duel. “I hired a hitman and changed your will,” spits Cyndi. “I slept with your sister,” counters Howlin' Pelle Almqvist over swinging horns. Their battle of words is in download stores now.
*Rather less gritty is The First Snowflake by cutesy duo The Boy Least Likely To. It's a hushed ballad that chimes and twinkles in all the right places, downloadable from today. Or you could hear it in person when they play Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen tonight.
*Eminem's first album since 2004 is imminent but the latest leak doesn't do much to up the excitement. Number One can be heard at www.vibe.com/news/music/2008/12/eminem_number_one/, a low-key piano loop topped with rhymes that lack the edge of his notorious early hits
