joe frady
Vile Refusenik
I've been soaking this up, like a fly in milk, for the last few days now, and I just wanted to say how smashing the 'new' CD sounds. After the sterling work done by Bill Inglot on 'Bona Drag' last year my hopes were high for the remastering of the old stuff included in The Very Best.
The first 2011 remaster is 'You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side' which sounds just as great as it always did. Beefier (no offence), yes, just not noticeably altered. But then it fades into (as with 'Bona Drag' Redux all the tracks fade into one another. No gaps here. Why? Cos he's a funny old duck, that's why) 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get' and you really here the brilliance. The case has to be made that this is Morrissey's greatest pop single, and it's just never sounded so astonishing as here. It begins with those three guitars, Alain playing that riff, greater than God, in your right ear, Boz playing the jangly bit in your left ear, Boz again strumming the acoustic right between your eyes, and Gary kicks in somewhere around the top of your spine/base of your gullet. Then in the post-'YEAH!' sections of the song there's another glittering guitar line sprinkled like a rainbow, arching across your brain. I know. I just said 'sprinkled like a rainbow'. But I don't care, that's what it sounds like. It's bloody great!
And then Morrissey arrives with that sly velvet taunt of a vocal. You'll be in a puddle. On the floor. I promise.
Obviously it's a testament to Lillywhite's original class production, but it's just never sounded so....sprinkly. And rainbowy.
Next up is 'Glamorous Glue' which now sounds like the dirty glam glass in the face it always threatened to be. After Morrissey delivers each line that great wide gash of guitar bursts in like a pretty punch in the ears. And the slides sound like they're coming down all the way from heaven. Or hell. Or Hull ~ Ronson would be proud. Thunderously thrilling.
'The Girl Least Likely Too' sounds even more than ever like The Smiths single that just never was, and that {Kevin Armstrong?} guitar solo at the end sounds glorious. And it fades into...the 'Suedehead' fade-in! Which has been restored on this album having been excised from last years 'Bona Drag'. Reason enough to buy 'TVBOM', I should say
Next up is 'Tomorrow' which is a remaster of the Steve Peck "US mix". It's a tad too muscular and...90s...for my taste, and I miss the mournful little piano waltz coda. But it packs a punch for sure, and I did find myself listening in some strange amazement as I realised that a little over twelve months prior to recording this song originally, Morrissey would have been recording 'Kill Uncle'. Which I, personally, love; but still and all...the change, the change!
'Boxers' truly shines gem-like, as the doleful little South London pugilist pop drama it always was. The Morrissey vocal is right there in your head, front and centre; narrating and empathising, bittersweet and lowdown.
Meanwhile...'My Love Life' the lovely long version, from the US single, is up next. To me, here, it finally teeters over the brink of a shimmering sublimity it had only previously promised hopefully! It's like a sunlit dream of a melancholic pop symphony. Perfect to put on repeat for these balmy British Easter afternoons. I had always wished that they had turned up that cracking Hammond organ on this track. And now they have. And extended it! It's always stood out for me as an oddity in the Morrissey cannon in it's hazy, dreamlike structure and sound. It just seems to...arrive, float around languidly, and then slip away again. Evanescent in a way (chart-wise certainly) but always lingering in the mind. John Peel once said he liked it very much because it sounded very like The Smiths. I don't see it myself. But I still love it. It still seems an underrated song - stuck fast and lame in the no-mans land between the sickly pallor of 'Kill Uncle' and the bruising vigour of 'Your Arsenal'.
'Break Up The Family' sounds...very nice. Just like it did on 'Viva Hate'. Don't really know why it's on here, but it sounds...very nice, nonetheless.
I didn't think they could do much to better 'I've Changed My Plea To Guilty'. After all it's mainly a piano and a vocal, what's to remaster? But, if anything, it's even more of a showstopper now. A true Moz chanson. {David Bret will wet himself} I'd never really noticed the bass underpinning the song before now, and the piano keys seem to be hitting harder in a 'My Way' kind of way. Morrissey's silken vocal just glides across the top of it all. The previous versions just sound a little anaemic to me now.
Going back to what I said earlier about the seemingly vast gulf between 'Kill Uncle' and 'Tomorrow' etc, you can kind of see how he got himself out of that supposed funk that he was in during 'KU'. The twin green shoots of 'My Love Life' and 'Guilty' sprouting in that summer of 1991 at least gives you a sense of Morrissey coming back to life again.
The Siouxsie-less 'Interlude' sounds gorgeous, although I do miss the contrast of that duet. It's not listed as a 2011 remaster as I suppose this version was never properly released before, but it's nice to have the solo rendition in a proper, non-bootleg sounding version.
The Nile-length 'Moonriver' sounds just perfect as you can hear every subtle detail of Lillywhite's original widescreen production, including Peggy Evans beseeching Dirk Bogarde 'Whatcha gonner do? at the songs end.
That final track emphasises what is so wonderous about the sound of these remasters - it's not a 'loudness', it's an expansion and separation. It underscores the brilliance of the original productions, making you hear them in a new light.
Obviously one can pooh-pooh the motives of this release, the chart-placings, the company touting, etcetera. But the fact is it reminded me how glorious these individual songs are, and these are the best they have ever sounded.
Full remastering programme.
Please.
NOW!
The first 2011 remaster is 'You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side' which sounds just as great as it always did. Beefier (no offence), yes, just not noticeably altered. But then it fades into (as with 'Bona Drag' Redux all the tracks fade into one another. No gaps here. Why? Cos he's a funny old duck, that's why) 'The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get' and you really here the brilliance. The case has to be made that this is Morrissey's greatest pop single, and it's just never sounded so astonishing as here. It begins with those three guitars, Alain playing that riff, greater than God, in your right ear, Boz playing the jangly bit in your left ear, Boz again strumming the acoustic right between your eyes, and Gary kicks in somewhere around the top of your spine/base of your gullet. Then in the post-'YEAH!' sections of the song there's another glittering guitar line sprinkled like a rainbow, arching across your brain. I know. I just said 'sprinkled like a rainbow'. But I don't care, that's what it sounds like. It's bloody great!
And then Morrissey arrives with that sly velvet taunt of a vocal. You'll be in a puddle. On the floor. I promise.
Obviously it's a testament to Lillywhite's original class production, but it's just never sounded so....sprinkly. And rainbowy.
Next up is 'Glamorous Glue' which now sounds like the dirty glam glass in the face it always threatened to be. After Morrissey delivers each line that great wide gash of guitar bursts in like a pretty punch in the ears. And the slides sound like they're coming down all the way from heaven. Or hell. Or Hull ~ Ronson would be proud. Thunderously thrilling.
'The Girl Least Likely Too' sounds even more than ever like The Smiths single that just never was, and that {Kevin Armstrong?} guitar solo at the end sounds glorious. And it fades into...the 'Suedehead' fade-in! Which has been restored on this album having been excised from last years 'Bona Drag'. Reason enough to buy 'TVBOM', I should say
Next up is 'Tomorrow' which is a remaster of the Steve Peck "US mix". It's a tad too muscular and...90s...for my taste, and I miss the mournful little piano waltz coda. But it packs a punch for sure, and I did find myself listening in some strange amazement as I realised that a little over twelve months prior to recording this song originally, Morrissey would have been recording 'Kill Uncle'. Which I, personally, love; but still and all...the change, the change!
'Boxers' truly shines gem-like, as the doleful little South London pugilist pop drama it always was. The Morrissey vocal is right there in your head, front and centre; narrating and empathising, bittersweet and lowdown.
Meanwhile...'My Love Life' the lovely long version, from the US single, is up next. To me, here, it finally teeters over the brink of a shimmering sublimity it had only previously promised hopefully! It's like a sunlit dream of a melancholic pop symphony. Perfect to put on repeat for these balmy British Easter afternoons. I had always wished that they had turned up that cracking Hammond organ on this track. And now they have. And extended it! It's always stood out for me as an oddity in the Morrissey cannon in it's hazy, dreamlike structure and sound. It just seems to...arrive, float around languidly, and then slip away again. Evanescent in a way (chart-wise certainly) but always lingering in the mind. John Peel once said he liked it very much because it sounded very like The Smiths. I don't see it myself. But I still love it. It still seems an underrated song - stuck fast and lame in the no-mans land between the sickly pallor of 'Kill Uncle' and the bruising vigour of 'Your Arsenal'.
'Break Up The Family' sounds...very nice. Just like it did on 'Viva Hate'. Don't really know why it's on here, but it sounds...very nice, nonetheless.
I didn't think they could do much to better 'I've Changed My Plea To Guilty'. After all it's mainly a piano and a vocal, what's to remaster? But, if anything, it's even more of a showstopper now. A true Moz chanson. {David Bret will wet himself} I'd never really noticed the bass underpinning the song before now, and the piano keys seem to be hitting harder in a 'My Way' kind of way. Morrissey's silken vocal just glides across the top of it all. The previous versions just sound a little anaemic to me now.
Going back to what I said earlier about the seemingly vast gulf between 'Kill Uncle' and 'Tomorrow' etc, you can kind of see how he got himself out of that supposed funk that he was in during 'KU'. The twin green shoots of 'My Love Life' and 'Guilty' sprouting in that summer of 1991 at least gives you a sense of Morrissey coming back to life again.
The Siouxsie-less 'Interlude' sounds gorgeous, although I do miss the contrast of that duet. It's not listed as a 2011 remaster as I suppose this version was never properly released before, but it's nice to have the solo rendition in a proper, non-bootleg sounding version.
The Nile-length 'Moonriver' sounds just perfect as you can hear every subtle detail of Lillywhite's original widescreen production, including Peggy Evans beseeching Dirk Bogarde 'Whatcha gonner do? at the songs end.
That final track emphasises what is so wonderous about the sound of these remasters - it's not a 'loudness', it's an expansion and separation. It underscores the brilliance of the original productions, making you hear them in a new light.
Obviously one can pooh-pooh the motives of this release, the chart-placings, the company touting, etcetera. But the fact is it reminded me how glorious these individual songs are, and these are the best they have ever sounded.
Full remastering programme.
Please.
NOW!
