Mystifying: how has Morrissey become unable to approximate a tune?

Maybe three songs off the last disc were pretty good to v. good.

by the looks of the video he chooses his band members based on muscles and packet size. i'd probably do the same in his position.

Morrissey has been doing this kind of stump singing for his entire career. The results are great quite often, but if his collaborator gives him a bland backing track, it's going to come out sounding like a bland Morrissey track. The problem is that he needs space to move around in the music & overcompressed chugalug indie ain't gonna provide.

I do love that he's taken on such a grandfatherly appearance in his middle age

whoa i had no idea this was out

weird you say that crut cuz the first impression i had was that he looks way more like young-solo-moz than ive seen him lately

but as you say this could be a song on any one of his albums. but then i loved 'far off places' & i dont think YATQ was all that great

I thought this song was off of a greatest hits release or something...

Yeah, it is. Morrissey: Greatest Hits, 2008 Decca Music Group Limited.

So it doesn't count against him. Right?

Morrissey has been doing this kind of stump singing for his entire career. The results are great quite often, but if his collaborator gives him a bland backing track, it's going to come out sounding like a bland Morrissey track. The problem is that he needs space to move around in the music & overcompressed chugalug indie ain't gonna provide.

OTM, lock thread

Well, I agree, but I'm also talking about how his newer songs often have no actual catchy melody (hi Geir!). This wasn't something I often thought about most songs on the first 4 or 5 albums / compilations.

"First of the Gang to Die" was plenty catchy - so was "Irish Blood, English Heart" - his hit/miss ratio isn't as high as it used to be but I really think it's all about who he's working with: Morrissey does one thing, and it involves playing off clever collaborators. He started with a very high standard, and with somebody with whom he had great creative rapport.

John OTM. "First of the Gang to Die" did the trick, but too often the plodding indie-rock of the last four albums doesn't give him enough room to vocally embellish tracks.

yeah these are great points from all of you -- FOTGTD is a classic as far as im concerned -- its also the only song that comes to mind of his past 2 albums as a genuinely catchy genuinely great pop song

its weird that as much as i love marr & favor the smiths over moz solo ive never really thought of moz as dependant on his collaborators but i think thats probably largely true, his best songs really are sung over his best instrumental tracks

o yeah & also i like southpaw grammar but i think ive mentioned that before

fake edit: ok just here POLL: Southpaw Grammar

Yeah, it's impossible to separate Moz's "compellingness" from the competence of his lead guitarists.