I know some of you hate these speculative threads but I can't resist them!
For some context, Quarry did brilliantly commercially, selling over 350,000 in the UK (over a million worldwide). Despite reaching number 1, ROTT did a lot less well selling about 150,000 (still above the 50-100,000 that most Morrissey solo albums shift).
Both albums did pretty well critically, see Meta Critic which gives an average score from a number of key reviews.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/morrissey/youarethequarry/
Quarry got 72/100 and ROTT 75 but neither album did well enough to get a Mercury (or other major prize) nomination, and generally didn't make the end of year top 10's.
From the several initial playback reviews, it seems that we have another patchy album on our hands. My main hope is that there is a clutch of songs which are worthy of a place in the fans' top 100 (preferably top 50) list unlike the solitary song (Life is a Pigsty) from the ROTT sessions.
Commercially, it'll probably sell over 100,000 in the UK which in the old days would have seemed a success (100,000 gets you the Gold disc that Moz pined for in 'You Know It Wouldn't Last') but may be considerably down on ROTT.
The only way Moz can reverse the 'Quarry to ROTT' sales decline will be if radio really gets behind 'Paris', and if there is a brilliant follow-up single (and from those initial reviews there didn't seem to be any talk of an obvious contender).
All in all, though, we should be in for a good year. Tons of new songs including, encouragingly, many new Morrissey/Whyte compositions plus some intrigue with a Jeff Beck cameo and a Chrissie Hynde duet. Plus tons of concerts to look forward to. Roll on 2009!
For some context, Quarry did brilliantly commercially, selling over 350,000 in the UK (over a million worldwide). Despite reaching number 1, ROTT did a lot less well selling about 150,000 (still above the 50-100,000 that most Morrissey solo albums shift).
Both albums did pretty well critically, see Meta Critic which gives an average score from a number of key reviews.
http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/morrissey/youarethequarry/
Quarry got 72/100 and ROTT 75 but neither album did well enough to get a Mercury (or other major prize) nomination, and generally didn't make the end of year top 10's.
From the several initial playback reviews, it seems that we have another patchy album on our hands. My main hope is that there is a clutch of songs which are worthy of a place in the fans' top 100 (preferably top 50) list unlike the solitary song (Life is a Pigsty) from the ROTT sessions.
Commercially, it'll probably sell over 100,000 in the UK which in the old days would have seemed a success (100,000 gets you the Gold disc that Moz pined for in 'You Know It Wouldn't Last') but may be considerably down on ROTT.
The only way Moz can reverse the 'Quarry to ROTT' sales decline will be if radio really gets behind 'Paris', and if there is a brilliant follow-up single (and from those initial reviews there didn't seem to be any talk of an obvious contender).
All in all, though, we should be in for a good year. Tons of new songs including, encouragingly, many new Morrissey/Whyte compositions plus some intrigue with a Jeff Beck cameo and a Chrissie Hynde duet. Plus tons of concerts to look forward to. Roll on 2009!