With all this seemingly compulsory hyperbole and white-wash 24/7 Mozza-lovin’ hanging heavy in the air at the moment it’s easy to forget he ever made and released ‘Southpaw Grammar’, which is result enough. Wiping the history books clean once we’ve become a little less insatiable towards his charms may prove harder. But more importantly it’s hard testament to what he’s actually crafted here.
No matter how exclusively enthusiastic our leaning towards innovation, evolution and experimentalism, we all still have an instinctive inquisitive-glee trigger attached to the words “return”, “to” and “form”. And Morrissey never evolved anyway, he was always about the classic and straight-to-the-point via the verbose scenic-route, he only became a little less convincing and sporadically inconsistent. This album is arguably his best work since The Smiths. It is truly a bone-fide joy. Thus his continued dedication to the classic sets this as a return to rather than a discovering of form.
And it’s nice to learn that we weren’t all duped with ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’ either, which was a solid-gold, meaty (ahem, meat-substitute – dietry ed) nugget of fascinating Moz perspective, anthemic poise and pounding rock, mouled by hi-fi-punk producer Jerry Finn. A perfectly directed return. While the album may not detract from previous solo peaks, it’s one of his most consistent and houses at least two of his utter finest moments in the fabulously titled and soaringly engaging ‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’ and the irretrievably catchy and radiantly poetic ‘First Of The Gang To Die’.
“And America, it brought you the hamburger, Well America, you know where, you can shove your hamburger. And you wonder why, in Estonia, they say ‘you big fat pig’?” And so begins US Resident Stephen Morrissey’s ‘America Is Not The World’. He finds brilliantly sharp, self-pitying and clearly enunciated form throughout. “Close your eyes and think of someone you physically admire” (‘Let Me Kiss You’). “Why did you put me in self- deprecating bones and skin? Do you hate me?” (‘I Have Forgiven You Jesus’). And crashing into the top-ten-Morrissey-lyrics-ever chart, “you have never been in love, until you’ve seen sunlight thrown over smashed human bone” (‘First Of The Gang To Die’).
Of course it is always all about Morrissey, he makes sure of that too. But especially, the music comes a lame second, always has done since he broke away on his own, always lagging behind the rounded Smiths sound the songs endeavour to emulate. And what else could they aspire to. But even so this record gleams through apparently lavish stitching and a quality finish. And he’s as charming as ever. “You’re not right in the head, and nor am I, and this is why I like you” (‘I Like You’). Cheers, come back in and take that stool you suave old curmudgeon. There’s a light that never goes out, it just flickers and comes back brighter.