release date: Mar. 20, 2020
format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: Joe Chiccarelli
label: Étienne / BMG - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Jim Jim Falls" - 2. "Love Is on Its Way Out" - 3. "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?" - 5. "What Kind of People Live in These Houses?" (4 / 5) - 6. "Knockabout World" - 9. "The Truth About Ruth" - 11. "The Secret of Music"
13th studio album by Morrissey is the collection of eleven tracks with a duration at just below 50 mins, and it follows less than a year after his so far least favourable studio release, the covers' album California Son (May 2019) - and once again the album is made with producer Joe Chiccarelli.
Musically, it's a return to form with songs written and composed with either guitarist Jesse Tobias or multi-instrumentalist Gustavo Manzur, and the compositions are in the traditional pop / rock and indie pop-style that you'll associate with his music as a solo artist. Sometimes he adds elements from alt. rock, chamber pop or synthpop, and it's the small stylistic differences that mark each of his so far thirteen studio albums. Much to the usual, there's also room here for sing-a-long pop songs - on this, it's the fine "What Kind of People Live in These Houses" and the pompous ballad "The Truth About Ruth".
I Am Not a Dog on a Chain falls closely in the neighbourhood of the fine World Peace Is None of Your Business (Jul. 2014) thus distancing itself from his most recent album of own material, the lesser Low in High School (Nov. 2017). Basically, it's surprising how relevant the lyrics appear and the general quality he throws at us - also seen in the light of his last two albums proved, and which, at least to me, signalled that he had come to an end in his musical career - but here he once again demonstrates an ability to return with significant music.
Personally, I must confess that I thought Morrissey had passed into anonymity - especially after tasteless political statements of his, but this is a rather fine collection of songs if you're capable of listening to the music without thinking this or that about Morrissey as a person with other statements...
