"Low In High School" released (Nov. 17, 2017)

Low In High School is out now.

• Full tracklisting and details
• Reviews
• Related tagged articles - "low in high school info"

 

[BrummieBoy]

I don't think he's a serious artist any more in the sense of making important work that's pushing music forwards, but I do think he takes the work seriously. He doesn't seem the type to just make an album for the attention, or to troll the music world. He obviously has a shy and depressive temperament, along with all the money he'll ever need, so why would he bother carrying on if he didn't believe in what he's doing? That's not to say he should believe in what he's doing. His politics are all over the place though and every time he references world events I cringe for him. I haven't read List of the Lost... is it really that bad?

You should listen to 'Low In High School' whilst reading 'List Of The Lost' on headphones.....then you'll realise......it's really, really bad writing but not as bad as the lyrics on this new album.

 

[Bluebirds]

Seems like most 'heritage' acts nowadays I'm only here for the live shows.

As is Morrissey by the sounds of things

 

[Kewpie]

It's BBC 6 Music's Album of the Day.

I was busy this morning, unable to listen Shawn Keaveny and Lauren Laverne.

Radcliffe and Maconie played I Spent the Day in Bed.
John Hillcotck (Lamo is off) just played Jacky.

*edit*
Shawn - My Love, I'd Do Anything for You
Lauren - I Wish You Lonely

 

[Cornflakes]

It's BBC 6 Music's Album of the Day.

I have a feeling that's going to be it for accolades, though.

 

[Bluebirds]

I have a feeling that's going to be it for accolades, though.

Oooh I dunno is there a musical equivalent of the Raspberries? And I think it may be album of the year in certain parts of Israel

 

[Cornflakes]

Oooh I dunno is there a musical equivalent of the Raspberries? And I think it may be album of the year in certain parts of Israel

Fair enough, I was forgetting Israel.

 

[Emma]

https://muzikalia.com/morrissey-low-in-high-school/
The British media have received Low In High School with ruthless critics who fall into acrimony. It can be imagined that, more than the album as a whole, they have focused on their lyrics; the same ones that do not grant pardons and are more hurtful than usual. Certain individuals, immersed in a cloud of glory and absolute truth, should write with the professionalism expected of them. Mozz is not a nice public figure or pretend to be. Those who can not face their point of view, are invited to disappear as soon as possible. Regardless of the opinion of the press, we find his best work from Ringleader Of The Tormentors (Attack Records, 2006). About to turn sixty, Steven Patrick Morrissey has not lost a bit of rebellion, commitment and attitude. Another remarkable work for the legend.

 

[Orson Swells]

You're having a giraffe Sir. Outside from 95 is one of Bowie's best albums. If only Moz had such daring - the subsequent tour was also very special. David managed a blistering 2 hour set, Morrissey today struggles with 50 minutes. And Earthling from 97 features great songs Dead Man Walking; I'm Afraid of Americans; Little Wonder; and The Letter. I was at the Hollyweird Bowel show and was beyond disappointed. The band are so ernest, there seems no joy amongst the players, it's a slug fest. And the songs are musically uninspired with such asinine lyrics you wonder if Moz is having us on.

Er, I did say his mid-80s to early-90s material. I do think Outside is quite good; Earthling I have never got into at all though I like the single edit of Little Wonder. Anyway, Morrissey sang 22 songs last night which I'm pretty sure is more than 50 minutes...

 

[BrummieBoy]

'Drowned In Sound' review...

'Short of downing a pint of frog’s piss on I’m A Celebrity, releasing an album of country duets with Shane Richie or get caught whipping his cock out a la Louis CK, it’s hard to imagine how Morrissey could sully his reputation any further'

'champions the state of Israel as if Julie Burchill had gelled her hair into a quiff and swapped provocative print journalism for the more candid communicative medium of ranting at strangers from behind a greasy karaoke microphone.'

'Low In High School is the latest in a long string of wet sausages that Morrissey has cruelly inserted into the ears of his audience. It’s hard to understand why his followers don’t storm off instead, for good.'

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/20141/reviews/4151493

 

[Anonymous]

Kill Uncle is his best in my much vaunted opinion.

I've listened to the new album a few times now and I give it 3/5 stars. What do you think of my updated solo album ranking?

1 Your Arsenal
2 Vauxhall and I
3 Viva Hate
4 You Are the Quarry
5 Years of Refusal
6 Kill Uncle
7 World Peace is None of Your Business
8 Ringleader of the Tormentors
9 Low in High School
10 Malajusted
11 Southpaw Grammar

 

[caramel sea salt]

'Drowned In Sound' review...

'Short of downing a pint of frog’s piss on I’m A Celebrity, releasing an album of country duets with Shane Richie or get caught whipping his cock out a la Louis CK, it’s hard to imagine how Morrissey could sully his reputation any further'

'champions the state of Israel as if Julie Burchill had gelled her hair into a quiff and swapped provocative print journalism for the more candid communicative medium of ranting at strangers from behind a greasy karaoke microphone.'

'Low In High School is the latest in a long string of wet sausages that Morrissey has cruelly inserted into the ears of his audience. It’s hard to understand why his followers don’t storm off instead, for good.'

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/20141/reviews/4151493

"Remember the good old times when Morrissey spoke for gentle outcasts and well-read oddballs instead of speaking exclusively for the mutant hatechild of Paul Nuttall and Alf Garnett?"

 

[Rush 2 Danger]

Disappointing album, but a little less disappointing than I was expecting. Starts strongly, but fizzles out half way. Think we finally have an album to lift Southpaw off the bottom of the pile.

I am a huge Morrissey fan but I will not be blinded by love for the artist...

MLIDAFY: Didn't like the live versions, has grown on me. Decent offering. 4/10

IWYL: Similar to the opening track, grown on me, especially the ending. 5/10

JOHWSUOTS: Earworm tune, not to the same level as STDIB, but solid enough. 4/10

HISQM: Standout track on the album, let down somewhat by the crude wrapping of legs lyric. Did Moz not used to be able to say things in a more amusing / clever / subtle way. 7/10

STDIB: Hated it at first. But have become very fond of it, love the chorus. The definition of an earworm. 7/10

IBTL: When I seen the title and duration, I feared we were getting another INAM as opposed to a LNMS or LIAPS. But it's totally different to anything that Moz has done before. This and Home will prevent me from never playing the album again. 7.5/10.

IYL: Really? It's come to this. Dire. Another oral sex reference? Yawn. 1/10

TGFTAWWK: Oh goodie, can't get enough of Kings, Rulers... But at least presented in a different way. At least on this occasion, if she won't kneel, it's probably not about you know what. Not terrible. 3/10.

ATYPMFIL: Thought process. Write a load of unconnected random lyrics, pull them out of a hat and sing over a karaoke version of John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance. Hope JL's estate is getting royalties. 2/10

WYOYL: Ohhh oral sex. He hasn't already covered this. Has he recently experienced it for the first time. Despite the crude lyrics and title, it's not half bad. 4/10

WWPUFTP: I'm lost for words... seems as if Moz was too. 2nd worst Moz song of all time. 0/10

Isreal: Decent track, but somewhatlet down by Morrissey's blinkered opinion of his new favourite country. 4/10

Overall, if you want to hear a 58 year old sing about Monarchy, Rulers, Soldiers, Wars and oral sex.... This is the album for you... if not, dig out Southpaw Grammar because it suddenly sounds a whole lot better.

I really wanted to love this, but I simply can't.

 

[Uncleskinny]

'Drowned In Sound' review...

'Short of downing a pint of frog’s piss on I’m A Celebrity, releasing an album of country duets with Shane Richie or get caught whipping his cock out a la Louis CK, it’s hard to imagine how Morrissey could sully his reputation any further'

'champions the state of Israel as if Julie Burchill had gelled her hair into a quiff and swapped provocative print journalism for the more candid communicative medium of ranting at strangers from behind a greasy karaoke microphone.'

'Low In High School is the latest in a long string of wet sausages that Morrissey has cruelly inserted into the ears of his audience. It’s hard to understand why his followers don’t storm off instead, for good.'

http://drownedinsound.com/releases/20141/reviews/4151493

That is a superb review, and sums up the willingly deaf who would give a five-star rating to a three-week-old festering turd in Mozzer's WC. The critique is laser-pointed accurate in every possible respect. The best summation of where we are at and how has it come to this that I have ever read.

 

[Bluebirds]

That is a superb review, and sums up the willingly deaf who would give a five-star rating to a three-week-old festering turd in Mozzer's WC.

Tbh I think that would be a marked improvement on the second half of this album

 

[Julesab7]

The absolute worst Morrissey album to date.

Morrissey acts like a condescending know-it-all. His lack of education and insight makes him sound childish and out of touch with reality.

Low in High School is nothing more than political rants put to mediocre music.

He’s a singing Donald Trump.

Ha ha ha! You're an ignorant baboon.

 

[Julesab7]

This new album is pure GOLD! To be able to listen to Morrissey sign is a privilege. Even better was seeing him at the Hollywood Bowl playing some of these new songs. Going back to the new album, it’s well made. The music is amazing. The musical arrangements are on point. I know some fans are over the whole Morrissey singing about politics but art is about exposing the injustice that we are living in. I believe Morrissey refuses to accept the current state of things as the new normal. I definitely think his music is inspiring people to look at many issues that otherwise they would ignore or reject. Morrissey thank you, thank you for being you! Viva Morrissey cabrones!

Hear! Hear!

 

[Julesab7]

Can I just say this. I don't want to exaggerate, but my initial impressions are that this may be the worst album I've heard by any music act, ever. I'm struggling to think of another album by any artist that left such a horrible aftertaste. In that sense, it's an achievement, to bring about that level of revulsion in a person. But lyrically and musically his career is dead, as is his legacy.

Even Charles Manson's pre-incarceration demos were less appalling than this album. There is no hope to the lyrics at all, and it's not that it's bleak in a way which could still have some merit, it's just turgid. It's artistically non-existent. There are more entertaining YouTube comments than this; teenage edgelords on 4chan have more insightful opinions to offer.

'Israel' is, lyrically, a career low-point, possibly the lowest. 'When You Open Your Legs' is listless, and the rest of the track listing reads like a list of the musically lifeless. 'All the Young People' is an insult. It really calls into question the whole notion of the 'career musician'. Especially those who achieved some level of financial success early on, and also the online media's continued coverage of such figures even after the quality of their recorded output has gone off the cliff edge. To be a career musician is no better than being a career politician.

Would you go and see Messi and Ronaldo play at 58 years old? Or Federer lugging himself around the tennis court while approaching 60? I don't see why this should be any different; increasingly so, with the evidence presented to us on this LP. And I'm not comparing Morrissey to Messi or Ronaldo either, he was never in that league, and after 'Low in High School' he'd be lucky to make the Accrington Stanley subs bench. He's the musical equivalent of Southampton's Ali Dia. Some public figures in certain fields of the arts and entertainment only improve with age, but Mr. Morrissey I'm sorry to say is not among them.

There are touring singer-songwriters playing in sparsely populated dive bars in Berlin tonight, and Amsterdam, barely making ends meet but with so much more to say than this malcontent sitting on his $30 million fortune and subjecting his listener base to half-arsed albums like this. Quarter-arsed. It's an embarrassment to everyone involved -- the listeners, the band, the record label, the production and mixing crews -- through no fault of their own in most cases.

But those within the inner circle who allowed this record to be made without once speaking out and questioning its direction, or its purpose for existing, are entirely complicit. They are cowards and enablers, and Korda Marshall has egg on his face. His cheeks should be burning so red that his dripping facial egg could find itself suddenly poached in seconds from the heat being emitted.

Typically I would give it a second listen to see if my opinions shift as the songs grow more familiar, but the thought of doing so with this particular album makes me feel nauseated. I'm afraid there are no words in the modern English language which could strongly enough express the utter contempt that I feel for what he has committed to record here. It is an attack, an aural and intellectual assault on the listener, nothing less.

Imagine how far-gone you'd have to be even to consider releasing something like this to the public. Edmund Kemper would have more sense than to release this album. With a severed head in one hand and LiHS in the other, he'd be more likely to bury the master tapes of LiHS in his back garden than the head, deeming this album to be the more incriminating and reputation-destroying of the two if found in his possession.

The only people who I could imagine loving this album are hardline Zionists, considering its themes, but even they'd have reasonable questions about its quality.

As fradulent as 'Punk' turned out to be in the end, at least it appeared to be successful - temporarily at least - in pushing out the hackneyed old guard and ushering in an exciting new wave who had something to convey in that moment which needed to be said and heard.
The only regrettable thing today is that there's not another wave of exasperated confrontational youths who'll come along and clear out the deadwood Morrisseys of this world who, like a bad case of the clap, just won't go away.

After his 35 year marathon career he's now hobbling toward the finish line...

While Morrissey is unlikely to trouble the charts with this clunker, the collapse of the music industry is partially responsible for his longevity. No longer can worn out old musicians just be swept aside in favour of the new, as the internet ensures their continued seat at the table. This is true even for somebody with Morrissey's 'comment history'.

Familiarity comes first for record companies as it's a safer bet for them to invest in than in the new and unusual which may not make any dent culturally and brings in poor returns.
This is where the loathsome idea of the 'career musician' rears its Moz-shaped head again.

The Morrissey who exists today would have been less likely to survive in the music business of 30 years ago if he behaved then as he does now when their monopoly was still immutable, and options were limitless, they could afford to dispense with an act like Morrissey whose harmful presence on their label would outweigh and diminish any marginal profits from average sales figures.

They could afford to cut him loose, especially if the sales were lagging far behind those of the true stars on the roster, and he was bringing more baggage and trouble than he's worth. He's signed today on name recognition alone, the artistry left the equation a long time ago.

Once upon a time he'd be locked up like the Marquis de Sade for releasing something so grotesquely inartistic for public consumption, because obviously you'd have to be completely barmy to put your name on such a thing. You don't see me putting my name to this post do you?

He would have been laughed at by children on every public square and had tomatoes chucked at him.

He'd also be lampooned in every colonial periodical informing the European diaspora of the goings-on in the Arts world. His name would be irrevocably linked with the likes of William McGonagle. His name would be a contemporaneous, and with time, historical punchline (and it is, and will be, but he would be laughed out of the public sphere entirely in his lifetime and wouldn't dare ever again show his face, not without a fake moustache and name change anyway. In modern times the name 'Morrissey' should be spoken of in the same breath as 'Tania Head'.)

Morrissey is the Andrew Dice Clay of the music world...

At least the works of the Marquis de Sade managed to achieve some sort of posthumous re-evaluation. This album isn't destined for a similarly generous fate , it will be confined to the dustbin of history forever, where it belongs. But in truth it never should have existed in the first place.

Some closing bullet-point observations.

• In 'Low in High School' Morrissey is the bully in the school bathrooms shoving your head into the toilet and stealing your lunch money (the lunch money being the price of the album, the toilet being the album itself).

• 'Low in High School' picks up where Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' left off but somehow with fewer sentiments of real value to contribute.

• While low in Morrissey's 'high school' the unsuspecting listener is grabbed and devoured, and finds that it's blacker than ever before almost as if they're trapped in the belly of the humpback whale being chased by gunships from Bergen. While neither Morrissey nor the whale 'give in', in the whale's case it's an act of defiance, whereas in Morrissey's it's a pathetic display that he refuses to just accept that the gig is well and truly up.

• 'Low in High School' should be investigated by human rights organisations for the cruel and unusual punishment it inflicts upon its listeners.

• On the school theme: in 'Low in High School' you watch the album's minutes and seconds slowly pass by -- 25:45...25:46...25:47...25:47 (??)..25:46(!!??) -- like all those late rainy afternoons sitting in math(...maths...LOL!) class, watching the clock, with time passing so slowly that it seems to stop, or for a split second the hand you're watching appears to edge slightly backwards.

• Listening to 'Low in High School' is the musical equivalent of receiving 'lines' to write as punishment in 'high school', in this instance writing out 'this must be punishment for something I did in a past life' repeatedly for 50 minutes (the album's length).

• Waking up on Christmas morning and finding 'Low in High School' in your stocking is only a slightly better prospect than waking up on Christmas morning and finding Santa Claus dead on your living room floor.

• On 'Low in High School' the aural 'high school' in question is Columbine.

• Referring back to Charles Manson from earlier, upon arriving home after a long day at work I'd rather pull into the driveway and find 'pig' written in blood on my front door than find a package waiting for me in my mailbox with 'Low in High School' contained inside it.

• "There are no words in the modern English language...." but I gave it a shot, however I'll stop here because I don't want to start exaggerating (re: my initial impressions) about how atrocious this album is.

• 'Low in High School' is aural syphilis!

Regards (sorry to everyone here who waited patiently for November 17th, some of you with anticipation, and all you got for your trouble and pain was this album which gives a glimpse into the mind of somebody deranged(?))
MOZAMBIGUOUS

P.S. While I write this I've been listening to the radio show 'Mystery Train' online which plays some great stuff. Not all is lost -- I needed to hear something like this to cleanse my soul and 'shake the disease' after my encounter with the oozing black bile of 'Low in High School'. The clouds are beginning to part again. 'Low in High School' contrives to frighten you. It wishes to pull you into its murky depths like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and be your 'friend' forever (forever). Morrissey's 'high school' is actually a cellar, and Morrissey as its principal takes off his mask to reveal a flickering Josef Fritzl-like face and a whole other cast of demonic characters on a kaleidoscopic daguerrotype underneath. He's not the man you thought he was. Avoid. Little lamb, run as fast as you can away from this terrible creation (never giving in), I beseech you, and don't look back.
TL;DR it's shite, although without 'Israel' and 'I Bury the Living' on the tracklist I might have permitted myself to go a touch easier on the old sod, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO!!

Who on earth would want to read all of that drizzle? You must have an incredible build-up of wax in your ears.

 

[Famous when dead]

Well, having just mooched around Birmingham City Centre, I wandered in to HMV...
So (pictures follow when I escape the place), there is no display. The album cover features on a Christmas advert in the window - nothing else.
The vinyl they had (20 copies they inform me) was all gone by 3pm and just more than half the CD stock was gone.
Nothing promotional, nothing exciting - a damp squib.
I hope other places made a tiny bit of effort given how active BMG have tried to be.
Regards,
FWD.

 

[BrummieBoy]

Why would anyone assume any of us are interested reading all of this?

I'm interested in reading it. And i'm interested in how you couldn't resist commenting on something you claim to have ignored.

 

[BrummieBoy]

Pop review: Morrissey: Low in High School
Morrissey was always awkward and morose, but now he is danger of sounding like the pub philosopher no one wants to get stuck with...


'Mocking laughter follows a coda of “everybody’s heading for the exit”, which sounds self-pitying and accusatory, as if addressing people running in horror from one of his concerts. Then again he might be singing about Brexit, which he has hailed as “magnificent”, because confusing political statements pop up throughout the album.'

'
While he stops short of claiming that we are run by a shady cabal of lizard people, this paranoid tone is suited more to a stoned student firing off 3am comment posts than one of Britain’s sharpest pop stars.

“Teach your kids to recognise and despise all the propaganda filtered down by the dead echelon’s mainstream media,” he recommends on My Love I’d Do Anything for You, no doubt including this review as propaganda to recognise and despise..

more impact if Morrissey didn’t sound like a pub crooner backed by surviving members of the Seventies glam stompers the Glitter Band.'

on the maudlin Israel he claims the country’s enemies bitch and whine simply because they are jealous of the Jewish state, an original summation of Israeli-Arab relations if nothing else'

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/pop-review-morrissey-low-in-high-school-d3tsldnfc