Years Of Refusal (+DVD) - Morrissey

...a few scores - after years of refusal. This sense of pent-up frustration and urgency is further accentuated by the album's aggressive, punk feel. Track 1 - 'Something is Squeezing my Skull' Morrissey draws on his own experience of using prescription drugs to combat depression in the album's opening track 'Something is Squeezing my Skull.' When he repeatedly delivers the line "I'm doing very well" his sarcasm is all too evident. The song's massive ...
...the tracks that follow. Track 2 - 'Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed' Perhaps the strongest track on the album is 'Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed.' (Surely destined to be the follow-up single to 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris.') The song explores a child's attempt to explain and ultimately come to terms with its mother's suicide. Like the album's opening track, this song has relentless, unforgiving percussion. Its soaring chorus is Morrissey ...

barley360 10.02.2009 (12.02.2009) · Read full review
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Review of Years Of Refusal (+DVD) - Morrissey

I must start this review confessing I am a Morrissey fan, but not the rabid kind that doesn't admit the man has his flaws - he's been peddling the same album for the last couple of decades, some of his opinions are a bit iffy, and some of his output in the past has been decidedly below par. However the previous two albums to this one, 'You Are The Quarry' and 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' were some of his best, especially the latter which saw him ...
...of the themes that had become Mozza cliches. That is he seemed to be in the throes of love (hetero- or homosexual we'll possibly never quite know), and allowed himself to sing about the rather un-Moz themes of actually having sex and (heaven forbid!) happiness. Whatever love affair Moz had while writing 'Ringleader...' must now surely be over, and sadly this has meant a return to some of themes of loneliness, celibacy and being unloved that have ...

leetemplar 22.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Years Of Refusal (+DVD) - Morrissey

...the Tormentors, in my mind Years of Refusal is a Moz masterpiece. Morrissey's hallmark humour, dry wit and opinionated observations make a familiar welcome return onto this album, which although is not deprived of its melancholy laments, is more upbeat and reflective of Morrissey's maturity as he embarks on his fiftieth year. There appears to be a theme of relationship experiences in his songwriting on Years of Refusal, whereas in the past, both ...
...so often been tales of searching and longing for a partner. With the exception of 'Black Cloud' and 'I'm throwing my arms around Paris', his lyrics are more dismissive here as if he's been there, done that, and bought the silk shirt to boot. 'I'm OK by myself", 'That's how people Grow Up' and 'Sorry will not help us' are obvious examples of this next chapter. 'When last I spoke to Carol', a tragic tale of the death of a loved one, leans towards ...

Eduardo77 19.07.2009 (26.07.2009) · Read full review
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Review of Years Of Refusal (+DVD) - Morrissey