I have decided that "vauxhall and I" is the best morrissey album

I'm sad & lonely too.

i dont have any skin

thats just the way it goes

i didnt even know about the smiths until this past march

so obviously im still obsessed, i only kinda liked your arsenal

the perfect smiths song is "please please please"

Jackson are you Aja?

-- Old Fart At Play (VivaQuarr...), October 4th, 2004 11:43 PM. (link)

Wait wait, is this Old Fart? Posting without exclamation points???

Have we done the critical reappraisal of Kill Uncle yet? I just picked it up, and it's far better than I'd been led to believe. 'Mute Witness', 'King Leer', and 'Driving Your Girlfriend Home' are lovely.

I've got a US b-side compilation called My Early Burglary Years that's quite fantastic. search 'At Amber', 'Boxers', 'Nobody Loves Us', and 'I'd Love To'.

I'm gonna have to strenuously disagree. I fuckin HATE NMHIF. Tuneless twaddle to these ears. Each to his own I guess.

Speedway is a fantastic album-closer. "In my own sick way, I've always been true to you...." it's a maudlin, self-martyred paean to his fans, obviously. Oh look at what he has sacrificed for us all, all the public slings and arrows he has endured just to be true to us...

Southpaw is underrated; I love it. The closing of 'Do Your Best and Don't Worry' may be his best rock moment.

I'll agree that 'Used to Be a Sweet Boy' and 'The Lazy Sunbathers' are a bit low, but 'I Am Hated For Loving' and 'Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself' rank among the man's best work. I love the chainsaw that opens 'Speedway'

To think of what Morrissey meant to me in the spring of '91 -- and the degree to which What He Meant To Me was connected to this transitional rockabilly sound -- requires me to uncover what exactly made him stand out in the same period.

Found this by accident on Spotify - it's from the Spinout soundtrack. Elvis's phrasing sounds incredibly Moz-circa-Vauxhall-like here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDIh52Ftz7A

Wow, I hear that. Easy to imagine mid-90s Morrissey doing a version of this song and not deviating much from that kind of arrangement or delivery.

Well, you've heard Moz's rendition of "His Latest Flame", right?

Despite being a big Morrissey fan, I've completely neglected most of his cover versions. I'll check that out later.

The Smith's cover or did he do it solo too?

I think Viva Hate is better, but Vauxhall a quick second. I gave Kill Uncle a spin yesterday; I loved it when it came out, then decided I hated it; yesterday it sounded pretty good. Unfairly maligned; stands up well compared to things that have come out since Southpaw.

What's a good album track on Viva? I've never enjoyed it, save the singles - it's always "why listen to this when I could be playing bona drag?"

think Late Night, Maudin Street is the best song he's ever recorded (am fully on team Vauxhall tho)

Little Man What Now

The Smith's cover or did he do it solo too?

Nah, they jut did a snip of it on "Rank", but he clearly could do Elvis if he wanted to.

Vauxhall, from performance to production to rakish cover photo, from best opening song to best closer, is easily his most solid front to back album. I can't even see how anyone would say otherwise. As a whole it is probably more consistent than any album the Smiths released, too.

Your Arsenal is great as well.

i like V&I but YA is much better imo. idk about consistency, that could be praise or criticism for that particular album, but i will say every smiths album is clearly better than every morrissey album.

They've got better songs, by and large, and better playing, for sure. I just mean as an objective attempt to rank (heh), which so many here like to do, Vauxhall and Arsenal are great albums with not a lot of flaws.

If Bona Drag "counts" then nothing else is even close

Viva Hate has I Don't Mind If You Forget Me, Break Up the Family and those marvelous singles. Not his best, though. Street's production too compressed, but he was Morrissey'so best co-writer.

Has everyone heard "Striptease With A Difference"? Great song. Supposed to be from 1987 but I thought it was from Kill Uncle era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c1VMchhXjk

Wow - I'd never heard it! Man, his voice was so good b/w 1987-1994.

I hadn't heard "Striptease With a Difference" either! The title seemed familiar, but I think that's just because I'd read about it.

I didn't realise that there are newer versions of Bona Drag and Viva Hate with more previously unreleased songs but they don't include this song unfortunately.

leafed through his autobio in a bookshop today, seems filled with interesting anecdotes written in prose so affected I'm p sure I'll never read it

You Are the Quarry has "Last of the Gang to Die", which is his "Beautiful Day" aka the last song he'll ever write that will make the crowd excited when he does it in concert

haha, that's mean... but probably true

ahah also it's scary that "Quarry" was released 13y ago (almost the same length of time between "Viva Hate" and "Quarry")...
Yet, in my head it's a late period/recent album of his.
I had to check his discography to find out !

my karaoke version of "First of the Gang to Die" is #1 in 31 countries.

You Are the Quarry has "Last of the Gang to Die", which is his "Beautiful Day" aka the last song he'll ever write that will make the crowd excited when he does it in concert

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

This is so otm.

Vauxhall & I is by far my favourite Morrissey record. I might even prefer it to any of The Smiths ones. Southpaw Grammar was the last album I could probably listen to all the way through. Totally agree with Gavin that Sunny and Boxers were really great singles. After that, the albums are so patchy with only a handful of highlights. First Of The Gang To Die, Irish Blood English Heart, Life Is A Pigsty and Something Is Squeezing My Skull are the only songs I really go back to.

You Are the Quarry has "Last of the Gang to Die", which is his "Beautiful Day" aka the last song he'll ever write that will make the crowd excited when he does it in concert

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

is an "every huge artist has their Beautiful Day" thread? (would start one myself, but don't want to incur the ire of all those ppl who were so upset by the New Jersey thread)

Sunny and Boxers are great but very strange when they came, effortless callbacks to the bona drag era when he had moved well beyond that, and such a contrast with the dreadful garbage of grammar. they are the last things he released that i care about at all.

"Boxers" was great indeed (its b sides were nice too). That single and "My Love Life" might be my favourite singles by him.
As for albums, it's between "Arsenal" (when I'm in a glam mood) and "Viva Hate" (in a... Durutti mood). And I don't count "Bona Drag".
I like "Vauxhall" but almost only due to "Now My Heart Is Full" which is far above the rest of the album.

I agree. Bona Drag isn't an album. Viva Hate, Vauxhall, and Your Arsenal are my favs depending on mood. Nothing after 1995 matters.

is an "every huge artist has their Beautiful Day" thread? (would start one myself, but don't want to incur the ire of all those ppl who were so upset by the New Jersey thread)

― soref, Thursday, February 16, 2017 8:38 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha i might f whiney cuz it is totally a thing

You Are the Quarry has "Last of the Gang to Die", which is his "Beautiful Day" aka the last song he'll ever write that will make the crowd excited when he does it in concert
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

That depends on where you're setting the bar for "excited". IIRC "You Have Killed Me" and "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" get pretty solid reactions when he does them live (and the former charted one spot higher in the UK than "First of the Gang to Die"). But "Gang" and "Irish Blood, English Heart" are the two most recent songs that he's played as encores, I think.

Also, wouldn't U2's last big hit/concert staple be "Vertigo", not "Beautiful Day"?

JRN - Vertigo is a New Jersey of Beautiful Days

"You Have Killed Me" and "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris"

http://tr0l0l.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/kanye-1.jpg

Anyone looking for a great round up of all of his non-album material from the peak post-Smiths era needs this: https://www.discogs.com/Morrissey-The-HMV-Parlophone-Singles-88-95/release/2005317

I consider Bona Drag an album, sorry.

this cover art still floors me

http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/m/morrissey_swords_main1.jpg

Morrissey ‎– Bona Drag
Genre:
Rock
Style:
Indie Rock
Year:
1990
Notes:
Compilation of non-album singles and their associated b-sides, plus two songs from "Viva Hate".

Seems like this is a constant debate on whether compilations are 'albums'. Not sure if it's a generational thing or a pendantic thing, but Bona Drag, Substance, Staring at the Sea, Hatful of Hollow = compliations. Albums are different things. Just because something is on 1 disc or in 1 package, doesn't make it an 'album'. Totally pedantic and shitty, but there ya go. Love Bona Drag too, btw. Want to buy an original pressing on vinyl. The new cover art is horrible.

Morrisey - Hold on a Second, I just Ran Really Fast

xp

The new cover art is horrible.

still better than the cover art for the reissues of Kill Uncle and Maladjusted though

http://www.parlophone.co.uk/morrissey/images/packshots/album-killuncle.jpg

also, "Pashernate Love" is great track, but putting it halfway through a reissue of Kill Uncle is a bizarre decision, it sounds totally out of place imo

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Morrissey_Maladjusted_2009_reissue.jpg

will never forgive him for removing "Roy's Keen" from this

imo if "Istanbul" was in all good music stores/streaming services then this would the current last great La Mozza anthem

will never forgive him for removing "Roy's Keen" from this
― soref, Thursday, February 16, 2017 2:44 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So weird that he did this. I love "Roy's Keen".

maybe he realised that ppl were getting too close to the truth about his involvement in Princess Diana's death: http://www.dianamystery.com/MorrisseyContacted-Part10.htm

I used to like "Roy's Keen" but it's really only the amusing title/lyrics of the chorus I liked.

xp: Also yes, "Istanbul" is great. One of my favorite sets of Morrissey lyrics, proves that he's still trying new things.

there are theories about the "Swords" cover art as well: http://theworldofmoz.blogspot.co.uk/2016_01_01_archive.html

"I didn't realise that there are newer versions of Bona Drag and Viva Hate"

there are newer versions of everything over and over every few years with worse and worse covers

he's taken some other tracks off records too I think..bewildering.

oh yeah, something came off viva hate. Hairdresser maybe? stupid

"Hairdresser On Fire" (bizarrely) wasn't on Viva Hate to begin with, it got added as US bonus track.

I'm all for adding things, I'm against removing them. Make Morrissey Albums Great Again!

I take it back, it wasn't bizarre to leave "Hairdresser" off Viva Hate, since it was a b-side already. What's weirder was hiding it away as a b-side to begin with.

those were the days when morrissey had great b sides

It was mentioned upthread, but maybe My Early Burglary Years wasn't released everywhere? Anyway, my top 5 would be:

Bona Drag
Your Arsenal
My Early Burglary Years
Viva Hate
Vauxhall and I

Michael's Bones, Sister I'm a Poet, and Girl Least Likely To would all make any Best Of mixtape for me.

My Early Burglary Years is a stupendous comp

Following this thread I listened to the HMV compilation yesterday.
It's pretty good. I'm not sure the tracks are remastered though ? ("Arsenal" remastered sounds really good).
Somehow, I'd never heard the studio version of "Jack The Ripper". I always liked that song but only knew the "Beethoven Was Deaf" version.
The production is weird (the voice and guitars are so low in the mix) but it's nice to discover the song from a new perspective.
I'd forgotten I really liked his cover of "Moonriver". And "Interlude" is good too (I remember I had the single !)

the dreadful garbage of grammar

his best album but OK

Had the same experience as AIXTC wrt "Jack The Ripper." Only version I knew was the live version from World Of Morrissey, a great comp btw, which features a lot of the singles discussed above, including "Sister I'm A Poet" (also a live version for some reason) "Boxers," etc

I've never listened to Grammar (it had terrible reviews when it was released, iirc). too bad it's not available on Spotify (I wonder why, by the way...).
I went directly from Vauxhall to Maladjusted then I stopped caring about Moz's releases !

Live versions of "Jack The Ripper" are superior. It's a really interesting one for him, I think they toured that one a lot.

xp so what are you basing your 'dreadful garbage' comment on? It's an amazing record and you're missing out because, what, NME didn't like it?

Would put "The Teachers Are Afraid Of The Pupils," "Reader Meet Author," "Boy Racer," and "Dagenham Dave" up there with any Moz. Not a weak track on the whole albyum (though tbh I'd lose the 'drum solo' that starts "The Operation.")

I quite like "Reader Meet Author" and "The Operation" but not much else. I say "Boy Racer" and "Dagenham Dave" are typical examples of his later formulaic material.

i was in first year of university when grammar came out, peak smith/moz for me. i couldn't have wanted more or tried harder to like that POS album. reader meet author is the only track that isn't totally worthless and it's exactly the kind of song where previously you would think, huh, that was a b-side? could've been on the album. boy racer and dagenham dave are just embarrassing.

i'm glad you enjoy it but i can't understand why. maybe because the NME didn't like it?

Live versions of "Jack The Ripper" are superior. It's a really interesting one for him, I think they toured that one a lot.

yet I find the studio version interesting. I like that they didn't go with the formulaic Moz average pop/rockabilly production but tried something else.

Southpaw Grammar is on Spotify in the US.