01. I Will See You In Far-Off Places.

Middle-eastern sounds and background noise. Quite heavy track and a very interesting opener. The lyrics seem to be controversial and not really Bush-US minded. Absolutely a new sound and direction. Like the idea that Morrissey is going a different path with strings and choir-like ideas. Very hard, but not really metal – in my point of view. His voice is crystal clear and passionate ! Not a great song, but a good opener – for a new Morrissey !

02. Dear God Please Help Me

Very slow song, Morrissey about his new love – Rome !
The CD is very well produced - his singing is fantastic on this one! It starts off really smoothly with just an organ and an acoustic guitar. “and I’m so very tired of doing the right thing”.

“then he notions to me with his hand on my knee – Dear God, did this kind of thing ever happen to you?”

A really atmospheric track with beautiful strings.

03. You Have Killed Me

The first mid-tempo (uptempo) track.

A straight on, poppy track with a chorus that just steams of hit potential!
In my opinion a catchy hit, with good potential and I cannot get it out of my head !!!
“As i live and breathe – You have killed me”
Starting from the first few seconds, you could hear that is the single and it is a very good song. 3:08 minutes pop – after the second listening I felt in love with that song and looking forward to hear the song very soon !!

04. The Youngest Was The Most Loved

The uptempo continues. Could very well be a future single – the chorus once again is really straight to the point, no fuss pop.

Here I had a mix feeling, as I prefer clear guitars and the sound is here more complex. As Sanctuary told me, this might be another single and with the second listening, I had a totally different experience, as the song has potential and the nice children choir at the end.

In the chorus Moz sings something like “There is no such thing in life as ‘normal’” backed by a children choir. He yodels quite a bit towards the end and I liked it – the second time !

05. In The Future When All’s Well

Starts with a western-movie sort of guitar riff – which is catchy and very nice. A midtempo track and Morrissey sings “Living longer than I intended – something must have gone right”.

A nice piano in the background and beautiful “aaaaaah”-backing vocals from the band. A straight on pop track with quite a bit of rock nerve to it, at the end Morrissey is starting to yodel once more.

06. The Father Who Must Be Killed

This one was not my preferred song – I thought it is more like a filler. Morrissey seems to be experiencing a lot of new things in Rome or in general. The whole record is full of lyrics and in this song, a bit too much of it. Starts with a drum intro. Visconti has added almost a gravelike echo effect to Mozzer's voice. Feels a bit like a b-side, actually. Quite riff heavy towards the chorus and the lyrics are really straight on and seem a bit... forced and sometimes quite silly. Melody wise the track never really happens and it ends with the drummer having quite a go at the old gong. The low point of the album in my opinion with a lack of melody.

07. Life Is A Pigsty

The masterpiece officially and indeed a nice, interesting song, the time flies, as the track seem to be much shorter than the 7:22.
Starts off with a real heavy rain effect and thunder in the background. Really dramatic. Gets a bit uptempo towards the chorus and Morrissey sings at one point “It’s the same old SOS but with brand new broken fortunes”.

The Moz singing on this is... astonishing. He croons, the falsetto is just perfect and the track really sent chills down my spine.

“Every second of my life I live only for you”, he croons and it’s hard to keep the tears away.

A very dramatic and typical Visconti production and maybe a career best from Morrissey.

Think big. Think Widescreen. Think drama. Epos !

A brave, brave track in all it’s seven and a half minutes majesty. A bit surprising are the beats in the back, which are at least unusual and reminds me a bit on the I like you QATY “beats”. I prefer guitars !

08. I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now

“I’ll never be anybody’s hero now, they who should love me walk right through me”.

The singing is marvellous on this one! A bit of falsetto, a bit of Sinatra croon. Morrissey does his best singing ever on this album actually! My first thought was the SECOND single, heavy guitars. Piano and still catchy – very nice song and the return
to clear guitars and a bit away of the complete background sound.
“I am a ghost / And as far as I know / I haven’t even died” is a stand out lyric line.

The chorus is a killer – I was just beaming in my seat because it's so darn good!

“I’ll never be anybody’s hero now – it only hurts because it’s true”.

09. On The Streets I Ran

Starts off quite fumbling but finds it’s way into a nice poppy verse. A fantastic track ! Thought it might be a single, but it seems that the singles will be: you have killed me, the youngest was the most loved, in the future when all’s well.

Straight on, lightly distorted rock/pop kind of in the same vein as Reader Meet Author. Morrissey sings about how he “turned sickness into popular song” only to change his mind in the last verse where he “turned sickness into unpopular song”.

The lyrics are amazingly funny. He has a go at the people of Pittsburgh and sings at some stage “if you don’t leave you will kill / or be killed – which isn’t very nice”.

“Take anyone – take the people of Pittsburgh, PA – just spare me”. Might be not a good and nice treatment of this area – funny and very good song. Enjoy !!

10. To Me You Are A Work Of Art

A good midtempo track. The vocal melody seemed kind of tricky at first but his singing here is just fantastic! Nice strings, nice, clear acoustic guitars and a really catchy chorus.

“To me you are a work of art / And I’d give you my heart / That’s if I had one”.
Finally a bit of space for the band to proof their capabilities, as Morrissey is not using every second for the lyrics – one of my favorites and indeed a very nice song…is this one an A. Whyte song ?!!

11. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy

Morrissey’s voice sounds a bit strange and strong (echo ?).
“Let’s face it – soon I will be dead” sings Morrissey on this really great pop tune.
Heavy and melodic song. Lyrics are heading again towards death and the final seconds are very catchy and combined with trumpets (?).

12. At Last I Am Born
The final track is drama pure - Oh dear, the drama isn’t quite over yet. A string heavy, Morricone sounding weird track with some marching band kind of drumming in it. Has quite a bit of talked. I have heard some “Spanish” guitars, sounds like a flamenco track – of course based and played by the English ! Hard to describe - The children are back, singing in the background and Moz croons “I was once a mess because of guilt of the flesh”.

Summary:
Although I only got to hear it once (and the songs You have killed me, The youngest was the most loved, in the future when all’s well twice) it made me feel confident that this is a special and really good record in total !!! I fully agree it is a different/difficult album and he might lose some of the single fans, which he gained with irish blood and the fantastic first of the gang, but all traditional Morrissey fans can be looking forward to a masterpiece in regard to his voice, the perfect sound and the different approach and ideas. I’m quite sure it will divide the fanbase quite a bit, the sound is often new, exciting, and sometimes strange, in my opinion the radio-suitable tracks are a bit rare, so the airplay will be limited. I miss in the first 6 songs the guitars, especially if I consider he worked with 3 players, but that my personal taste.

For this is a dark, dramatic and quite difficult record to get ones head around. It feels very much as a grower, actually. It will take quite a few listens before it “sits” in once heart and mind. But on the other hand the second hearing changed my mind already and I believe that this is a great record, on a very high level, just with the lack of 2-3 more Hit singles.

Fingers crossed for all of us and I hope this is a kind of support. I tried my very best, but to listen to the new Morrissey record just once, had a nervous impact to me. Santuary is very commited to that record, as the company is very depending on success of that record for the future and direction of the record company. They will support him, at least same as for YATQ.