'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - Mojo Dec 2010

[Maurice E]

There's a nice piece in December's Mojo about what it considers to be the top 10 Morrissey/Smith albums (studio or compilation).
HOH rightfully claims it's number one spot followed by VAI and TQID.
Viva Hate and (I think) Your Arsenal also make the top 10 but, most bafflingly, so does the lyrical cringe fest (set to mediocre indie-pop) that is Ringleader of the Tomatoes. Unbelievable!
But, all in all, a good balanced article.
Oh, and Kill Uncle gets singled out as the one to avoid!

 

[modrevolve]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

I always find it ironic that the height of Mozmania, at least in America was during the Kill Uncle period which is in many of fan's eyes (including my own) his worst album.

 

[Qvist]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Yay, finally some recognition for Hatful of Hollow!

I find it absurd to put VAI before TQID, but at least it's his best solo album. i agree with you regarding Ringleader, but am not too surprised - opinion on that one is just so polarised.

cheers

 

[Paulc]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

I always find it ironic that the height of Mozmania, at least in America was during the Kill Uncle period which is in many of fan's eyes (including my own) his worst album.

Think i am alone on here - Kill Uncle is my favourite!

 

[KenzieW]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Think i am alone on here - Kill Uncle is my favourite!

I don't have a favorite Morrissey album, but I really like Kill Uncle. King lear always puts a smile on my face, and Driving your Girlfriend home is magical.

 

[Worm]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Yay, finally some recognition for Hatful of Hollow!

I find it absurd to put VAI before TQID, but at least it's his best solo album. i agree with you regarding Ringleader, but am not too surprised - opinion on that one is just so polarised.

cheers

Yes, but do you rate "Hatful of Hollow" above "The Queen Is Dead"? I've gone back and forth, myself. I think the latter has a better collection of songs while the former is a tighter, more unified arrangement (as you would expect comparing a compilation to an album). Usually I go with TQID as #1 because on Side 2 Hatful's momentum wanes a little before the devastating conclusion.

I don't think there's any doubt they are #1 and #2, whichever goes in the top spot.

 

[iamaerolls]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Think i am alone on here - Kill Uncle is my favourite!

Nope, that's my favorite too. I had the shirt with the cover on it and lost it. I need to find it again. That's the one shirt, Kill Uncle, I wish I still had.

Kill Uncle is the one I always come back to. So underrated. And my favorite.

 

[Qvist]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Yes, but do you rate "Hatful of Hollow" above "The Queen Is Dead"? I've gone back and forth, myself. I think the latter has a better collection of songs while the former is a tighter, more unified arrangement (as you would expect comparing a compilation to an album). Usually I go with TQID as #1 because on Side 2 Hatful's momentum wanes a little before the devastating conclusion.

I don't think there's any doubt they are #1 and #2, whichever goes in the top spot.

I do rate Hatful of Hollow above The Queen is Dead, though it certainly is very close. It's not just the quality of the songs, it's also the fact that to me HoH is sort of the template of how The Smiths is supposed to sound, if that makes any sense. But oh, there's a case for either. Unlike most people I was never a big fan of the title track on TQID, which makes it three slightly substandard tracks on that album for me, maybe that's enough to fall behind a bit.

cheers

 

[Worm]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

HoH is sort of the template of how The Smiths is supposed to sound, if that makes any sense.

It does, very much. I almost never play the very dated-sounding "The Smiths", whereas "Hatful of Hollow", made up of some of the same songs, is evergreen. But at sixteen tracks, 'Hatful' lacks some of TQID's cohesiveness. The album feels like a discrete moment in time, captured perfectly, whereas HOH sounds like exactly what it is, a grab-bag of two years' worth of material.

I was never a big fan of the title track on TQID

Took me awhile to warm up to that one, but now it's one of my favorites. Blistering track by the band and one of Morrissey's best lyrics, in my view.

The oddest thing about "The Queen Is Dead" is that it actually sounds better at a lower volume.

EDIT: Perhaps the truly oddest thing about "The Queen Is Dead" is that (for me, anyway) the song's hook is the wailing boiling-kettle feedback, or whatever it is, that starts as soon as the soundbite from "The L-Shaped Room" subsides. It's as distinctive as any guitar riff Marr ever put on vinyl. When I recall the song in my memory it's always that first blood-curdling noise I hear. To me it stands out as clearly as "This Charming Man" or "Still Ill".

 

[Not Right in the Head]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

People still pay for music?

 

[Qvist]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

It does, very much. I almost never play the very dated-sounding "The Smiths", whereas "Hatful of Hollow", made up of some of the same songs, is evergreen. But at sixteen tracks, 'Hatful' lacks some of TQID's cohesiveness. The album feels like a discrete moment in time, captured perfectly, whereas HOH sounds like exactly what it is, a grab-bag of two years' worth of material.



Took me awhile to warm up to that one, but now it's one of my favorites. Blistering track by the band and one of Morrissey's best lyrics, in my view.

The oddest thing about "The Queen Is Dead" is that it actually sounds better at a lower volume.

EDIT: Perhaps the truly oddest thing about "The Queen Is Dead" is that (for me, anyway) the song's hook is the wailing boiling-kettle feedback, or whatever it is, that starts as soon as the soundbite from "The L-Shaped Room" subsides. It's as distinctive as any guitar riff Marr ever put on vinyl. When I recall the song in my memory it's always that first blood-curdling noise I hear. To me it stands out as clearly as "This Charming Man" or "Still Ill".

Yes! That's exactly right, that I do love. What amazes me with TQID is above all how well There is a light and The boy with the thorn in his side hold up. They still put a joyful lump in my throat every now and then, and still sound fresh.

The two albums are very fundamentally different in every way - they're like finished product and living matter respectively. One thing that helps HoH to stay alive is that it is also a sort of point of reference for forays into other Peel sessions and early live tracks and Troy Tate sessions. So many of the songs exist in so many slightly different versions that it's almost like being immersed in a perpetual process of becoming, where everything is still tentative. Wow that sounded pretentious. But it's true.

cheers

 

[Kewpie]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

There's a nice piece in December's Mojo about what it considers to be the top 10 Morrissey/Smith albums (studio or compilation).
HOH rightfully claims it's number one spot followed by VAI and TQID.
Viva Hate and (I think) Your Arsenal also make the top 10 but, most bafflingly, so does the lyrical cringe fest (set to mediocre indie-pop) that is Ringleader of the Tomatoes. Unbelievable!
But, all in all, a good balanced article.
Oh, and Kill Uncle gets singled out as the one to avoid!

I simply don't understand some people dislike ROTT so much.

It's my favourite Morrissey album in 2000s.

 

[Qvist]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

I simply don't understand some people dislike ROTT so much.

It's my favourite Morrissey album in 2000s.

That's what I'm talking about, it's polarised beyond reason. For my part I simply don't understand what people could conceivably like in it. In part embarrasingly weak tunes, with 2 or 3 exceptions, and underwhelming lyrics. Not particularly different in style from other albums. What's there to like?

cheers

 

[Scarlet1987]

Kill Uncle is superb in every way, it's my favourite Morrissey time aesthetically musically and artistically and I rather think it's quite rockabilly in style.

 

[Eraserhead]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

That's what I'm talking about, it's polarised beyond reason. For my part I simply don't understand what people could conceivably like in it. In part embarrasingly weak tunes, with 2 or 3 exceptions, and underwhelming lyrics. Not particularly different in style from other albums. What's there to like?

cheers

That's a bit extreme. Surely if you have any time for Morrissey's work you can understand what people may like about it. It is pure Morrissey.

I personally couldn't pick a favourite album and I can't really understand V+I being singled out as being the obvious pinacle. I don't know if everyone jumps on the bandwagon or whether there really is something about that particular album. I think it's excellent, but there is so much quality throughout Morrissey's ouevre and a diversity of sounds and words.

 

[Qvist]

Yes of course, this is "like" in the highly relative sense of inside Morrissey's oeuvre. Compared to almost anything else ROTT is an excellent album, the 3 or so good songs on it are more than enough for that and even pedestrian Morrissey outclasses most other things. What I really don't understand is what in it people could conceivably like better than, say, You are The Quarry. But again, there you go, the vagaries of taste.


cheers

 

[Eraserhead]

Yep. I think it should be stated that YATQ is an exceptional album and should always be considered amongst his best.

 

[the_kaz]

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for RTT, because it was the first non-compilation Morrissey album I actually bought. But, listening to it now, I find it to be his most bland, though that doesn't mean I find it the "worst" as such. IMO, even the slated albums, KU and SG, offer something interesting and quirky to the table. I find RTT, however, to be his most "samey" and uninteresting offering to date, but I still love it (the three or so stand-out tracks easily see to that). I personally think YATQ kills it though.

 

[crotty32]

its HOH for me as well,i like these kind of albums where live tracks,b-sides,etc are put together and to my ears it sounds great,its like the album you would recommend to anyone who wanted to know what the smiths sounded like,i like the disjointness of it, it is the album that drew me to morrissey/smiths

 

[murder and desire]

I never read those articals as I get filled with fury, as I have now I read this thread.
There (as always) is a lot I could say, I will make do with my claim that Kill uncle maybe a Novella but its richer for it.
I would rate kill Uncle above, YATQ any day and it's as good as Southpaw and YOR.

Just my take on the world