Morrissey A-Z: "Who Will Protect Us from the Police?"

A very strong contender for WORST EVER MORRISSEY SONG, along with a few others from both LIHS and also WPINOYB. Awful, awful, awful music that is both heavy-handed and tuneless, and the lyrics are insipid beyond compare. What the f*** was wrong with M and the boys around the time of LIHS?
 
I have no particular desire ever to hear this song again BUT it is kind of adorable to see some of the comments under the YouTube clip from people in Venezuela being super thrilled that Morrissey wrote a song about their country, their situation. So if I'm feeling charitable, I can admit that maybe this song wasn't written for me.

It's still shit, though.
 
I quite like this one. Anthemic and anti-authority, though he covered his anti-police-sentiments more eloquently on Ganglord.

7,0
 
I don't hate LIHS like many here but this is Morrissey at his worst. There's no discernable tune here and calling the lyrics heavy-handed would be very generous. As a politic statement, "Venezuela/Venezuela/Venezuela/Venezuela/Venezuela" is not really Noam Chomsky, is it?
 
Well...
I don’t think this is the worst Moz song, and it’s certainly better than “The Girl From Tel-Aviv...” - at the least, there is some effort to do something different.
This time, the band craft a heavier, more electronic-industrial leaning to the tune to reflect the brutality of the lyrical themes - watch that I said lyrical themes because the lyrics themselves are pretty hard to come by. When you do stumble across them, they’re...um, not great.
I’ll admit that the tune has grown on me, and some essence of flawed grandeur that’s admirable. Also, I also quite enjoy the ending, with the build and Moz shouting “VENEZUELA!!” at the top of his lungs, which, in all its load of bricks subtlety, is in a way affecting. The heart is there, it just doesn’t shine through as clearly as many would want.
5/10
 
Well...
I don’t think this is the worst Moz song, and it’s certainly better than “The Girl From Tel-Aviv...” - at the least, there is some effort to do something different.
When I played Who Will... 20 minutes ago, YouTube chose Tel Aviv as the next track. God, that is awful too, although I would say that with it's waltzy feel, it definitely tries to do something different, more than ...Police. It just doesn't work in any way.
 
iv always liked this,its heavy and brooding with a message.the lines are probably too repetitive for most.
8 sirens/10 police.
 
And who will protect us from this song?
It is just one shellshock of sounds with barbelé a tune, and slogans with barely a thought.
Yes, it’s been done in Ganglird, much better.
 
For me, this represents the absolute nadir. The worst song on the worst album released during the lowest period of Moz's career. Yes, there is a worthy sentiment behind some of the terrible lyrics, but it is rotten, rotten, rotten. The fact that Boz has been marginalised following his involvement in LiHS is sad, but perhaps a blessed relief if this is the sort of thing he was putting forward. I never want to hear it again.

Gosh, I am in a bad mood this morning.
 
It's really poor and I don't often say that about a Morrissey track. Very weak both lyrically and musically.

Worst song on the album.
 
I suspected this might get a hammering on here :rolleyes:, but again, because I have a lot of time for the album, I really like this track. Great beat & rhythm to it; strong bass, pounding drums & some trombone sounds provide the requisite darkness. Crank it up & feel the power in this one. Lyrics are, however, sparse & repetitive, but it has great vocals, & just love the way he sings 'Venezuela'. As ever Moz, ignore the detractors, with this track 'You were right all along'.
 
Morrissey looks down from his ivory tower to Venezuela, has bad bad experiences with the police himself and gets involved.
You can do that, but you don't have to like it.
 
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I do really appreciate the theme of the song and the title but the song itself isn’t great. Tuneless is apt and just musically uninteresting for me. Just to note though I do love the girl from Tel Aviv
 
This album is too political for my tastes, but I have to say that this is not my least favourite song and I prefer it to yesterday's (a relative judgment).

There is, at least, a little life to the music.

The title is repeated far too often, it must be said.

In the poll on the Hoffman board it ranked equal 229th from 264 solo songs.
 
Absolutely piss poor... upon listening again (a pledge I’ve just broken) it’s no better.
At the time of its release I’d had enough of Morrissey going on and on about free speech and brutality from the cops , so this song just rubbed salt into the wounds.

And to listen and watch this video at his live shows was dull . Who on earth wants to go to a show and watch people being half killed by the police....
 
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