I think you, Mr Worm, (and others in this thread) make the huge mistake of assuming that Morrissey is some kind of musical genius. He's gone on record as saying that he doesn't even consider himself to be a musician. He's a singer and a lyricist in a pop group - that's all he's ever been. The albums are released under the name 'Morrissey' for marketing reasons, not because he's a solo artist. He's never written a note of music (‘vocal melodies’ don’t really count), and he's never played an instrument apart from some comedy piano on DOADD. So, the idea that he largely determines how each record sounds, musically, simply ain't true.
Of course, he has a say in how the recorded songs turn out but only really from a musical layman's point of view. He gets given demos by his songwriters. Some of the songs he likes, others he doesn't, but his influence in how they end up sounding is pretty minimal. The musical problem, if indeed there is a problem, is the strength of the melodies, not the way the songs are arranged. Years of Refusal had plenty of musical diversity (When Last I Spoke to Carol, Good in Your Time, OK by Myself, and Arms Around Paris are all miles apart stylistically), as did Who Ate Me Curry. An interesting arrangement (e.g. the flutes and the softly strummed guitars of I’m Not Sorry) does not, a great song, make.
I’m sorry but the idea that he's throwing his career down the drain is nonsense. He's continuing to co-write songs which range from being a bit rubbish (The Kid’s A Looker) to being actually pretty good (Art Hound). I'd argue he's been doing this, pretty much, ever since the Street era. 'Action' is probably strong enough to get on the Radio 2 A-list, and therefore lead an album to 70,000 sales. If he can co-write a melodically stronger song and release it as a single, album sales could get back towards 150,000 to 200,000.
Morrissey remains a hugely important cultural figure, perhaps more so than ever. There's no-one else anything like him, of any age. The NME (still, sadly, the main voice of musical youth-culture) remains obsessed. That's probably partly why he remains a largely successful ‘act’, despite the so-so quality of many recent songs.
His media profile over the summer has been ridiculously high, and many (including me) would agree that the 2011 tour was his best for years. Even the new songs gathered enthusiastic responses from journalists. So, it looks like it will be business as usual for the next album. Yes, I’d love it to be better (and I’m still desperately hoping Street will be involved) but the idea that he’s suddenly found himself in serious trouble, commercially or artistically, is rubbish.
And what is this 'long and needless exile in the pop wilderness', exactly? It's been just 2 years since the last album was released. And we've now heard 5 new songs performed live. Compare this with the so-called wilderness years, when we had to wait five years (1997-2002) before any new material, and even then, with the exception of First of the Gang, we had songs that were arguably even more underwhelming than the current batch of new songs.
Hello Qvist! I hope you are well.
Heh, I think you know exactly why you find that significant.
I basically agree with this, though not nearly as wholeheartedly as before. As I've been saying, the breaking point for me was realizing that even if we grant that his appeal is largely due to his unwillingness to bend to the tastes of a fickle public, there's no excuse for purposely eschewing a more dynamic range of backing music. He can remain heroically steadfast in attitude and spirit, clinging to the spirit of Refusal, and still manage to come up with a better sound for his records. Mind you, I'm not suggesting he collaborate with Lil Wayne or the Vienna Philharmonic. I'm not suggesting he set "Querelle" to music, like some ill-conceived Lou Reed project. I just mean there's a little more he can do, with his music, and were he to expand the horizons of his sound, even modestly, I'm confident he would not be forced to continue this long and needless exile in the pop wilderness. He's not even the poison in the human machine anymore. He's not even in the picture. And increasingly, given the realities of the new pop marketplace-- this isn't 1985, and for that matter it's not even 2005-- I don't think it's overdramatic to say he's throwing his career down the drain. There comes a point when we have to start distinguishing between stubbornness, tragic/heroic stubbornness, and needlessly suicidal stubbornness. His lack of a record deal isn't a glorious defeat. It's just...nothing.