Official reviews of 'Bobby don't you think...'

Just combine the non-album singles from the era. Something like this:
MORRISSEY_BOXERS-41517.jpg

Morrissey - Boxers (1995)
Side 1:
I'd Love To
Boxers
Have-A-Go Merchant
Whatever Happens, I Love You
Nobody Loves Us

Side 2:
Sunny
Black-Eyed Susan
A Swallow on My Neck
Moon River (Extended)
Yup, those were the days. Although I would also lose Moon River.
 
And here's another of some blogger or other. Some interesting thoughts...

"Nobody seems to have mastered the art of the comeback single quite like Morrissey. Suedehead and Irish Blood, English Heart both blasted him back from the brink, and now this, his latest offering. It might not feel like he’s ever been gone, especially to those of you across the pond who’ve enjoyed his recent California Son tour. But back in Blighty, there has been much discontent, as he seemed hellbent on self-destruction on account of his poisonous political views. For most of us it was a step too far. I have never listened to his latest covers album, and quite frankly don’t ever want to. It seemed as if he had nothing left to say anymore about any of our lives, and so good riddance.

His latest single landed out of nowhere. On the Morrissey-Solo website last November, Motown diva Thelma Houston announced her involvement in Morrissey’s new album with the release of the new teaser single, Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know? in March 2020. Given Morrissey’s recent hammering on social media, and his apparent lack of new material, my expectations were as low in High School. I remember listening to Spent The Day In Bed for the first time and thinking what the hell is this? But then it grew on me.

This wasn’t the case with Morrissey’s latest single. I loved it immediately, despite trying so hard not to. From the opening rolling piano chords, right the way through to the closing echoing notes of Houston, almost 6 minutes later, the song is a right old tour-de-force. The days of Morrissey bearing any resemblance to The Smiths are long gone, and rightly so. Here is a man who has clearly misread the room politically, but is bang on point musically. Lyrically, it’s not his best, but then at almost 60 years old, what else is there left to say other than to spout political bile or knock out a load of crappy covers? ‘You ain’t fooling nobody!’ sings Houston on his new record, hopefully right in his face.

Produced once again by Joe Chiccarelli, Morrissey’s latest offering released today is slick and rich and full of nods to Chiccarelli’s eclectic musical past. He cut his teeth as a sound engineer in the 1980s working with the likes of Frank Zappa, Hugh Cornwell, Alison Moyet and Ray Manzarek, whose Doors-like keyboard interlude takes you right by surprise. He was even involved with the Bee Gees in the Saturday Night Fever original soundtrack, and throughout ‘Bobby’ you can hear the disco-beat pulse throbbing below the surface, along with some jazz, funk, R&B and the obligatory Motown overtones.

In fact, it’s Thelma Houston who is the real star, so much so that maybe it should be her single, with Morrissey on backing vocal. I hope he’s paying her better royalties than he was to Mike Joyce. It’s not the first time of course that Morrissey has put a single out with a backing singer – Sandie Shaw, Kirsty MacColl, Siouxsie Sioux, Chrissie Hynde to name a few. Houston is certainly in good company (and no, she is not related to Whitney). Her vocal performance packs a real punch and is more than a match for the wily old crooner, whose voice just gets better and better with age.
Don’t forget as well that Thelma Houston won a Motown Grammy in 1977 for her cover version of the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes classic ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’, immortalised of course by The Communards. So she knows her way around a recording studio, and even more so a vocal range.

I made a pledge in 2019 that I was kind of done with any new stuff by Morrissey. I wanted to remember Low In High School as his last great works. He made it clear from his Canadian set lists that he too was done with The Smiths. The biggest cheer at any Moz concert is always when he launches into a Smiths track, so to arrogantly deny us of this I found insulting, given the amount of money we’ve all spent putting him on the stage in the first place. I put a tweet out saying pretty much the same thing and was immediately blocked by a number of American fans for saying so. We are all fickle folk, us fans. Me included.

So whatever you might think of Morrissey as a human being, as a recording artist he remains a pop legend. To me, he will always be the lead singer of the band that changed my life as a boy. His songs back then really were a rubber ring, but I do struggle as I get older to recall those giddy feelings. That said, let’s not forget that the man has been in the business for almost 40 years and is as creative and original now as he was back then when he first sat in his room with Johnny Marr writing The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, one of the greatest poems ever sung.

Times change, lives evolve, music moves on. Fair play, I suppose to Morrissey for doing the same (politics aside). According to Chiccarelli, this is his ‘boldest and most adventurous album yet… both musically and lyrically.’ He may well be right: After all, the closing track on the new album is called ‘My Hurling Days are Done’, for heaven’s sake. What more do you want?

‘Ah,’ sings Thelma on the new single, ‘Whenever you sing for us / Ah, the pleasure you bring for us.’ If this is a taste of what’s to come, then the 20th March release of Morrissey’s upcoming album will be eagerly awaited.

https://knownpleasures.home.blog/2020/01/10/morrissey-single-review-bobby-dont-you-think-they-know/
You obviously dont know nor understand the 1st thing about Moz's avant garde thinking in lyrics. Such a shame
 
Back
Top Bottom