release date: Jul. 15, 2014
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Joe Chiccarelli
label: Harvest Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "World Peace Is None of Your Business" - 3. "I'm Not a Man" - 4. "Istanbul" (4 / 5) - 5. "Earth Is the Loneliest Planet" - 6. "Staircase at the University" - 7. "The Bullfighter Dies" - 8. "Kiss Me Alot" - 10. "Kick the Bride Down the Aisle" (4 / 5) - 11. "Mountjoy"
10th studio album by Morrissey and his first for Harvest as he had signed a two-record deal with mother company Capitol Records who had just acquired EMI's catalogue [this remains his only for Harvest, as he was released from the contract with Capitol in 2015].
The album features a new producer and the songs are primarily written together with Morrissey's old musical associates Boz Boorer (who has written 5 out of 12 songs) and Jessie Tobias (who has written 5 out of 12 songs), with two tracks co-written with new multi-instrumentalist Gustavo Manzur. The musicians on the album are Boz Boorer on guitar, clarinet and saxophone, Jesse Tobias on guitar, Solomon Walker on bass, Matt(hew) Walker on drums and percussion, and with Gustavo Manzur playing piano, organ, synths, trumpet, accordion, guitar, didgeridoo and q-chord.
The album slowly opens up, and my initial luke-warm feelings to it slowly vanished and soon it has become a delightful experience. It comes out pretty much on par with Years of Refusal (2009), and is therefore also tightly bonded to his strong comeback album You Are the Quarry from 2004. Like many recent Morrissey albums it contains music that needs attention to grow, and if first granted, it reveals subtle, strong, and very fine songwriting beneath... a waterline, or perhaps just to over-rule a first verdict. Nevertheless, it surely contains music for precocious ears.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, The Guardian, Mojo, 4 / 5, NME 4,5 / 5 stars ]
