Morrissey - Years Of Refusal

Polydor

Few musicians understand the psychology of fandom as acutely as Morrissey. You see, Steven Patrick is nothing if not a fan. From the very beginning, his lyrics have been peppered with references to those he himself has idolised, a litany of outsiders and eccentrics that includes literary titans and sporting greats, music mavericks and celluloid stars.

On Years Of Refusal, Morrissey communicates an awareness of his own place in the cultural tapestry, conscious that he is to others as Oscar Wilde is to him. ‘You Were Good In Your Time’ claims that “You made me feel less alone / You made me feel not quite so / deformed, uninformed and hunchbacked”. Is this a fan’s address to Morrissey? Possibly not, but it could easily be read as such.

Throughout, death casts its grey pall. Morrissey and Mort always were pen pals, but the inexorable drift towards that final, fatal day when the two will meet lends the likes of ‘One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell’ a keener edge. Undaunted, he rails heroically against the dying of the light, baritone aquiver as he musters every fibre of his being into the words. Musically, Years Of Refusal is perhaps the most aggressive album in the Morrissey canon, the opening ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’ a perfect example of the record’s rabid punk-rock riffs and TNT rhythms. This may not please those who feel Morrissey was served better by the flighty whimsy of Johnny Marr’s guitar playing rather the straight-up rock boorishness of Boz or Alain Whyte, but there is an undeniable dynamism to these tracks, the force of the music matched by the vigour with which Morrissey lambasts “uncivil servants”, “bailiffs with bad breath” and “a QC full of fake humility”.

Elsewhere, the militaristic beat of ‘Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed’, the Mariachi heat that permeates ‘When Last I Spoke To Carol’ and the regal spite of ‘It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore’ provide enjoyable detours from the driving rock template. And underlying all is a sense of wearied acceptance; when Morrissey greets the reaper it is not with a grimace but with a flickering smile of satisfaction, as he knows his place in pop’s iconography is assured. As he declares at the close of ‘All You Need Is Me’, “You don’t like me but you love me / Either way you’re wrong / You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone”.

It is reassuring to know that amidst the flotsam and jetsam of contemporary music, whilst others flounder against time’s tide, Morrissey stands steadfast; battered but unbowed. Francis Jones

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DOWNLOAD: ‘SOMETHING IS SQUEEZING MY SKULL’, ‘IT’S NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY ANYMORE’, ‘YOU WERE GOOD IN YOUR TIME’.
FOR FANS OF: BARBED WIT, MUSCULAR RIFFS, FULL-BLOODED DRAMA.

Issue #62 - Pretty Hip

Featuring Snow Patrol, the Top 50 Irish Albums of the Decade, Edwyn Collins, The Japanese Popstars, Hudson Mohawke and more.