"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"

 

[Orson Swells]

Somehow you seem to have missed the 4/5 review in The Telegraph and the 3 and half out of 5 review in the US Rolling Stone.

 

[BrummieBoy]

1* Morrissey: Low in High School — rambling reflections, eccentric digressions
The singer casts himself as a noble outcast defying a cruel and authoritarian world but the songs go badly awry....

Following a kamikaze foray into fiction with his unreadable novella List of the Lost,.......pompous, badly phrased lyrics in which he has lamentably come to specialise......

The self-regard reaches a preposterous apogee in closing number “Israel”, a melodramatic torch song in praise of the divisive country, a recurrent reference point in the album. “They who rain abuse on you, they are jealous of you as well,” he enunciates with quivering fellow feeling, one misunderstood outsider to another. A satiric version of Evita’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” comes to mind. So, alas, does Morrissey’s calamitous decline since the days of The Smiths.'

https://www.ft.com/content/98b0b90a-c9b3-11e7-ab18-7a9fb7d6163e

LOL!

 

[Tbevie]

I've never understood the need to constantly compare albums. Or make statements like, "it's his best/worst album since....."

I prefer to judge each album on it's own merits. I know it's still early but I like every track. Of course there's a few standouts but for me it's very listenable, as an 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.

WARNINING - Just in, Carbuncle's review!

 

[The Wild Turkey]

Hearing Israel was an unexpectedly cleansing experience. Upon first listen, I got that gripping shiver that moving music induces.
By the third listen, the cleansing tears came. Not tears that stream down my face, but tears that well up in my eyes. Welled up
tears from the well of recognition of truth and beauty. By the fifth listen, I began to think of the song as a celebration of transcendence.
Of the purified bodies of water being my own body. Of my own individual inner scriptures, written to my own specifics.
To these Turkey ears, Moz sings the song like a prayer. I can only speculate that in the physical place of Israel, he may have recognized
a spiritual place in himself. What a gift to listen to. Bring on the rocks and ridicule!

 

[BrummieBoy]

Metacritic current standing is 59 but that excludes the scathing reviews in The Times, Financial Times...having done my own personal review before reading other 'official' reviews, it's gratifying to see the 'mainstream media' finally give him a good kicking. He truly deserves it for this crock of shite record!

http://www.metacritic.com/music/low-in-high-school/morrissey/critic-reviews

a host of carnal imagery that dredges up memories of how poorly he wrote about sex on his 2015 novel List of the Lost...... Low in High School can seem as aurally conflicted as it is politically, and that may be an appropriate look for Morrissey in 2017: He's opted for a mad world of his own creation and doesn't much care whether his fans follow or not.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/low-in-high-school-mw0003107720

awkwardly shoehorned half-rhymes (Israel), with all the haphazard conviction that comes with second-rate filler....

Morrissey is teetering on the edge of irrelevance (many will argue he's well past it) and what he does next may determine the rest of his career. Morrissey can alienate fans with outlandish outbursts or with decidedly average new music, but both at the same time is surely too much for even the most forgiving fan.....

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/reviews/albums/morrissey-low-in-high-school

least listenable track ‘Israel’ sees him deliver political polemic via the dubious medium of a piano ballad. Moz has become pop’s greatest troll in recent years, and here he’s exhaustive in goading you to hit the ‘off’ button.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/album/morrissey-low-in-high-school-review#wzXILYHqSr3LURYl.99

lyrically, his most blunt, pedestrian, and disengaged from reality.... It's Morrissey's weakened, diminished lyricism that kicks it down from being a solid-if-not-stunning Moz record to something almost unpalatable. What the hell happened? Has Morrissey truly lost his wit, or is he too old and angry to even try anymore? Gone is the romanticism; also missing are his clever wordsmanship and bitter sense of humor.

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/morrissey_low_in_high_school/

 

[BrummieBoy]

Hearing Israel was an unexpectedly cleansing experience. Upon first listen, I got that gripping shiver that moving music induces.
By the third listen, the cleansing tears came. Not tears that stream down my face, but tears that well up in my eyes. Welled up
tears from the well of recognition of truth and beauty. By the fifth listen, I began to think of the song as a celebration of transcendence.
Of the purified bodies of water being my own body. Of my own individual inner scriptures, written to my own specifics.
To these Turkey ears, Moz sings the song like a prayer. I can only speculate that in the physical place of Israel, he may have recognized
a spiritual place in himself. What a gift to listen to. Bring on the rocks and ridicule!

Elegant sarcasm. I assume these are words you mostly cribbed from Morrissey's diary after he heard the final mix of 'Israel'?

 

[Eric Hartman]

WARNINING - Just in, Carbuncle's review!

Is that you, Damon?

 

[Vegan]

...the more I listen to it the more I like it. Yes there's some cringe worthy lyrics but that's nothing new. I love the production of this album especially. Makes the melodically thin songs sound bigger. His singing is superb. As I wrote before this is not exactly what I was expecting. It doesn't have the easy to love hooks of previous albums but anyone calling this "the worst" I don't fully understand. Yes, there's some controversial and awkward political insinuations but could we perhaps be reading more into what's actually there? "Bury The Living" seems to take task with a certain military mindset...or he could be suggesting a soldier could/should abstain from fighting and if not they are not absolved from accountability. You gotta give him some credit. Who else writes a song like this?!? Randy Newman does but most of us seem to know he's playing characters. With Moz we find that hard to believe because he's so personal at all times. We believe this is Steven Morrissey the man speaking here. I dunno. I choose to not let the politics dampen my enjoyment of the record. The outcome of certain elections suggest we are not living in the best of times so a restless, irritable, sardonic, cynical, angry (at times) album might be the zeitgeist. After all didn't he claim as much?

"Home" is a gem (except the inane "wrap your legs around my face" line. C'mon, be more clever). I expected more from "All The Young People". I think he's picked the likely singles so far. "Home" prolly next. This is a very eclectic album. I can't decide if it's a difficult masterpiece or just a somewhat messy, hit and miss collection. Like I said the more I listen to it the more I dig it....

 

[Anonymous]

Hearing Israel was an unexpectedly cleansing experience. Upon first listen, I got that gripping shiver that moving music induces.
By the third listen, the cleansing tears came. Not tears that stream down my face, but tears that well up in my eyes. Welled up
tears from the well of recognition of truth and beauty. By the fifth listen, I began to think of the song as a celebration of transcendence.
Of the purified bodies of water being my own body. Of my own individual inner scriptures, written to my own specifics.
To these Turkey ears, Moz sings the song like a prayer. I can only speculate that in the physical place of Israel, he may have recognized
a spiritual place in himself. What a gift to listen to. Bring on the rocks and ridicule!

You must be one of them..? You know a big noser who thinks according to your own book that you are a chosen people and everyone else is worthless and below you....

 

[The Wild Turkey]

Elegant sarcasm. I assume these are words you mostly cribbed from Morrissey's diary after he heard the final mix of 'Israel'?

I'm telling ya it moved me. It may be funny, but I had to say it.

 

[Hades]

Love the new album. Some of the hysterics on this forum is downright hilarious.
I feel for you guys that Morrissey doesn't share your political views, now go and get a life and listen to something else; there's plenty of music out there.

It's a solid album. Side A knocks it right out of the park till I Bury The Living which is a bit tedious.
Side B is an interesting listen because of its musical diversity. Israel being the absolute highlight for me. One of my favorite Morrissey album closers and some lyrics applicable to some of the forum members here, bitching and whining because Morrissey is not like you. Bunch of silly crybabies.

 

[g23]

It's OK Eric. Just move on. Even Bosie did.
You could enjoy Nick Cave last (vacuum) album. (During) He (Nick Cave) was doing (born 1957) hair transplants (in same clinic as Elton John) when his son was going in deep drug affair - there is thing to think about.
It's funny how the world goes on... ...

What a vile, vulgar, hateful thing to say. You should be ashamed of yourself.

 

[Bluebirds]

Somehow you seem to have missed the 4/5 review in The Telegraph and the 3 and half out of 5 review in the US Rolling Stone.

Suspect the Torygraph may have an interview lined up. It pains me to concur with the majority of mainstream reviews. Of course Morrissey will proclaim plus ca change and indicate that it's all a conspiracy but the album really is, objectively speaking, a f***ing stinker.

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone else yearning for the days of The Kid's A Looker and People Are The Same Everywhere? Can't believe I just said that!

 

[Eric Hartman]

...the more I listen to it the more I like it. Yes there's some cringe worthy lyrics but that's nothing new. I love the production of this album especially. Makes the melodically thin songs sound bigger. His singing is superb. As I wrote before this is not exactly what I was expecting. It doesn't have the easy to love hooks of previous albums but anyone calling this "the worst" I don't fully understand. Yes, there's some controversial and awkward political insinuations but could we perhaps be reading more into what's actually there? "Bury The Living" seems to take task with a certain military mindset...or he could be suggesting a soldier could/should abstain from fighting and if not they are not absolved from accountability. You gotta give him some credit. Who else writes a song like this?!? Randy Newman does but most of us seem to know he's playing characters. With Moz we find that hard to believe because he's so personal at all times. We believe this is Steven Morrissey the man speaking here. I dunno. I choose to not let the politics dampen my enjoyment of the record. The outcome of certain elections suggest we are not living in the best of times so a restless, irritable, angry (at times) album might be the zeitgeist. After all didn't he claim as much?

"Home" is a gem (except the inane "wrap your legs around my face" line. C'mon, be more clever). I expected more from "All The Young People". I think he's picked the likely singles so far. "Home" prolly next. This is a very eclectic album. I can't decide if it's a difficult masterpiece or just a somewhat messy, hit and miss collection. Like I said the more I listen to it the more I dig it....

You like the production? Really? The synth sound effects belong in a cheap scifi movie from the sixties. They don’t add anything.

 

[Vegan]

Metacritic current standing is 59 but that excludes the scathing reviews in The Times, Financial Times...having done my own personal review before reading other 'official' reviews, it's gratifying to see the 'mainstream media' finally give him a good kicking. He truly deserves it for this crock of shite record!

What makes you think he wasn't expecting this? I honestly think he doesn't give a shit about being liked anymore or maybe he never did. The reviews are mixed but it's being talked about. In today's instant grat culture things get lost in the dust of the next thing rather quickly. This one will have a longer life in the public consciousness.

 

[Vegan]

You like the production? Really? The synth sound effects belong in a cheap scifi movie from the sixties. They don’t add anything.

Yeah I dunno. It sounds good in my headphones. There's a lot going on. It makes the anemic melodies stand out more. I think I really like this album but I'm just trying to determine if that's only because I WANT to. "It grows on you" as the cliche' goes...but then again so do skin tags and who loves those?

 

[Orson Swells]

Suspect the Torygraph may have an interview lined up. It pains me to concur with the majority of mainstream reviews. Of course Morrissey will proclaim plus ca change and indicate that it's all a conspiracy but the album really is, objectively speaking, a f***ing stinker.

I suspect they do too. You are thoroughly entitled to your view, but it is most definitely subjectively speaking.

 

[Eric Hartman]

Yeah I dunno. It sounds good in my headphones. There's a lot going on. It makes the anemic melodies stand out more. I think I really like this album but I'm just trying to determine if that's only because I WANT to. "It grows on you" as the cliche' goes...but then again so do skin tags and who loves those?

I decide if I like an album based on the first listen. I don’t want to be Stockholm-Syndromed into liking it by listening to it over and over again.

So last night I listened to Low In High School for the first time, and frankly, I was horrified.

It’s like listening to Donald Trump. Offensive and ignorant.