'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - Mojo Dec 2010

[MuteWitness616]

What a load of bullshit. Kill Uncle is the definite Morrissey album...

they're teaching idiots how to listen and ruin Morrissey.

Stupid

 

[Gregor Samsa]

How to buy Mozalini 2.0

Vauxhall and I
- Pure poetry from start to finish. He has never sounded better, looked better, written better lyrics. Perfection.

Hatful of Hollow
- Perfection yet again. Some of his best lyrics during The Smiths. The album encapsulates the essence of The Smiths.

The Queen Is Dead
- One of the best albums of all time. Need I say more?

Maladjusted (expanded)
- The original 1997 release is painfully underrated, but I shall not let that happen to the expanded re-release! It takes everything that was great about the original (the poetry, the outsiderisms, the sadness) and leaves out Papa Jack and Roy's Keen (IE: everything else). Oh, and it also includes some superb b-sides!

Meat Is Murder
- More even than The Queen Is Dead, yet with fewer devestating highpoints. Though not a weak track on it. And Johnny Marr shines on every chance he gets. Brilliant.

You are the quarry
- The triumphant return! Comeback of a lifetime! Etc etc... Fantastic album, despite a quite commercial sound, musically. Great defiant lyrics, and a voice in top form.

The Smiths
- The debut. Classic poetry about being nobody's nothing.

Viva Hate
- Solo debut. Includes Everyday is like sunday and Late Night, Maudlin Street. Worth the price in itself.

Strangeways, Here We Come
- The swan song from The Smiths. Not as focused lyrically as the other albums they released, but still great. Just look at I won't share you, Last night I dreamt... and Paint a vulgar picture.

Your Arsenal
- An interesting phase in Morrissey's career. Enter: Morrissey the bruiser. The skinhead lover. The hooligan supporter. Certain moves he might have regretted later on, but I find it absolutely fantastic. Who else but Morrissey would have dared? None.

Avoid:
Greatest Hits (2008)
- Shameless cash-in. Meh.

Step 2:
Buy everything else. They're f***ing marvellous. Don't act like you don't know. Bitch.

 

[Theo]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

I always find it ironic that the height of Mozmania, at least in America was during the Kill Uncle period which is in many of fan's eyes (including my own) his worst album.

Wasn't it, in large part, because The Smiths hadn't toured America in years, and in the time between that and the start of Morrissey's solo career, his popularity in America had been building for a bunch of years? And in that build up, "Strangeways", "Rank", "Viva Hate", "Bona Drag", and "Kill Uncle" came out? And word got out that Morrissey was putting on a great show on the "Kill Uncle" tour with his new band? And before then, Morrissey had not really made a big effort to be big in America? But he was clearly making an effort in the early '90s, going on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, then with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, etc. And in the years between 1986 and 1991, more and more people were hooking up to cable TV and seeing videos of his songs that their local radio stations weren't playing?

 

[modrevolve]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Pretty much yeah

Wasn't it, in large part, because The Smiths hadn't toured America in years, and in the time between that and the start of Morrissey's solo career, his popularity in America had been building for a bunch of years? And in that build up, "Strangeways", "Rank", "Viva Hate", "Bona Drag", and "Kill Uncle" came out? And word got out that Morrissey was putting on a great show on the "Kill Uncle" tour with his new band? And before then, Morrissey had not really made a big effort to be big in America? But he was clearly making an effort in the early '90s, going on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, then with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, etc. And in the years between 1986 and 1991, more and more people were hooking up to cable TV and seeing videos of his songs that their local radio stations weren't playing?

 

[not_me_not_I]

Re: 'How to buy Morrissey and the Smiths' - new Mojo article

Wasn't it, in large part, because The Smiths hadn't toured America in years, and in the time between that and the start of Morrissey's solo career, his popularity in America had been building for a bunch of years? And in that build up, "Strangeways", "Rank", "Viva Hate", "Bona Drag", and "Kill Uncle" came out? And word got out that Morrissey was putting on a great show on the "Kill Uncle" tour with his new band? And before then, Morrissey had not really made a big effort to be big in America? But he was clearly making an effort in the early '90s, going on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, then with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live, etc. And in the years between 1986 and 1991, more and more people were hooking up to cable TV and seeing videos of his songs that their local radio stations weren't playing?

Exactly what I was thinking last night. Don't forget "Hulmerist" (a training video for how to behave at a Morrissey concert for those of us in America who'd never had the pleasure of seeing a Smiths show) and "Louder Than Bombs." He may have been making an effort but he didn't need to - The TV stuff happened around tour time, AFTER he was already insanely popular and all the shows were already sold out. I fell in love in 1987 - and had no way to see him until 4 angst-filled years later. I didn't care why he was touring. He could have toured in support of "Kill Uncle" and I still would have treated the tour like the second coming.