release date: Mar. 14, 1994
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: Steve Lillywhite
label: Sire Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Now My Heart Is Full" (4 / 5) - 2. "Spring-Heeled Jim" (4 / 5) - 5. "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" (5 / 5) - 6. "Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself" (4 / 5) - 7. "I Am Hated for Loving" (4 / 5) - 9. "Used to Be a Sweet Boy" (4 / 5) - 10. "The Lazy Sunbathers" (4 / 5) - 11. "Speedway"
4th studio album by Morrissey released on Sire and produced by Lillywhite is Morrissey's second with guitarist Alain Whyte and his first with Boz Boorer. The two guitarists and composers here launch a longtime collaboration work with Morrissey as his first choices in composer partners. Steve Lillywhite seems like another good choice (like Stephen Street, and Mick Ronson), and he makes sure the sound and style has both the energetic output, and a distinct, yet never boring feel. Your Arsenal (1992) was seen as an artistic and productional success, so for this album Morrissey would most likely have wanted Ronson in the producer seat again if he had not died in 1993 at the age of 46. Anyway, Lillywhite does a great job as substitute, although, the album came out while grunge dominated the world of music and maybe therefore it seemed more polished than it actually is. I remember, thinking how smooth and pop-oriented it was - and with some disappointment. Fact is, it's really one of his better albums. Like its predecessor Your Arsenal the album succeeds in the US, this time reaching #18 on the album chart list there, but it was only his second album so far to top the chart list in the UK, and the single "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get" reached number #8 in the UK but it was his only single making it to the Billboard Hot 100 in the US where it peaked at number #48, however, topping the Hot Modern Rock Tracks list. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Q Magazine, Blender 5 / 5 stars ]
