I agree, the album was poor although a couple of great songs stand out I think (End of the Family line is my favourite).
Here's a theory, Mozzers collaborators (apart from Marr) have always been junior partners and consequently he appears to allowed to overly self indulgent and we get a high quotient of duff songs. There never appears to be someone who could tell him to hold back (the roles I guess Lennon andbe Mcartney played).
I think his present band are so clunky and predestrian. He's been with them so long and the last album really showed that. It's as if he has not the confidence to collaborate with bigger names. The recent gigs are very similar to what he was doing 10 years ago, there is no progress. He is such a marvellous artist, it truely saddens me to think what he could be doing rather than plodding along with a Southend covers band.
PeterB