Link posted by Benton on the general board, via comment on the main page.

Is Morrissey Ready To Die? - CMJ Relay
January 5th, 2006. Posted by Kory Grow

Upon listening to Morrissey’s eighth solo album, Ringleader Of The Tormentors (out April 4 on Attack-Sanctuary), it seems he’s a little too preoccupied with killing others, as well as his own impending doom. From the lead single, “You Have Killed Me,” to a story about wanting to live long enough to see his son grow up (“I Just Want To See The Boy Happy”), the ex-Smith rivals only Eminem in “killing” himself and bystanders on a single record. Not that eminent death is anything new to the Morrissey repertoire—after all, this is the guy who wears black on the outside because black is how he feels on the inside—but this is slightly unprecedented.

On the album’s first song, “I Will See You In Far-Off Places,” he sings to a lover amidst Middle Eastern instrumentation, “If your God bestows protection upon you, if the USA doesn’t bomb you, I’ll see you somewhere safe…” He has a song about killing his stepfather (“The Father Who Must Be Killed”), and in possibly the most shocking move, he shucks his own human life to be born again at the end of the album. That’s right, after yet another album of feeling unworthy of love, “At Last I Am Born” finds Moz singing, “I thought I had numerous reasons to cry, but I don’t anymore… I am finally born.” Well, that was a long, strange trip, Stephen Patrick. It’s nice he had a change of heart, because if he keeps on making records like this, we may want him to stick around.

Musically, Moz even sounds a little like some other famous (and dead) singers in certain spots: he channels Elvis on the Ennio Morricone-arranged “Dear God Please Help Me,” and he even gets in some ‘40s-styled vocal flourishes à la Frank Sinatra on “I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now.” His vocal performances are so impressive, that some of the musical breakdowns just seem like filler until the next time he opens his mouth. And for an album that is possibly his most poppy musically—meaning, he uses verse-chorus form throughout most of it—it’s possibly his most emotionally complex and conflicted. Perhaps all Morrissey ever needed was a emotional yo-yoing that was drastically more morose.