Morrissey albums sell well if there is either a large gap since the previous one or there is at least one, and preferably two, brilliant singles (widespread critical acclaim makes some difference but not much - Your Arsenal is one of his poorest selling albums).
Both of these things happened with You are the Quarry which is his biggest ever selling studio album in the UK (Smith or solo) despite ranking about 8th or 9th out of the 13 albums in terms of quality (and in my opinion ranking 12th or 13th).
Morrissey is currently touting People Are The Same Everywhere (PATSE) as his best new song - he's played it more than all the others live and showcased it on TV.
I'm sorry but there is not a marketing team on Planet Earth that can achieve decent album sales if PATSE is the best thing on it.
Morrissey expects the kind of record deal that artists attract who sell half a million in the UK (as he almost did for YATQ). Trouble is, his subsequent albums sold 200,000 then 85,000. If PATSE really is as good as the new album gets, he'll be lucky to sell 50,000 and that's why he's not being offered a decent deal.
One of two things can happen to end the current stalemate. Morrissey becomes so keen/desperate to release a new album, that he accepts his low-selling status and signs a deal with a small indie label (probably meaning no physical singles, and limited sales outlets for the album).
Or he provides evidence that he has the two brilliant singles that he needs to achieve much higher sales than YOR. 'Action' is just about ok and would probably get playlisted on Radio 2 but, if I worked for a record company, I'd want to make sure he had at least one other song that was considerably better up his sleeve. For what it's worth, I'm optimistic and I think a new album will come out in 2012 - I expect Morrissey will just swallow his pride and put it out on a small label...
Both of these things happened with You are the Quarry which is his biggest ever selling studio album in the UK (Smith or solo) despite ranking about 8th or 9th out of the 13 albums in terms of quality (and in my opinion ranking 12th or 13th).
Morrissey is currently touting People Are The Same Everywhere (PATSE) as his best new song - he's played it more than all the others live and showcased it on TV.
I'm sorry but there is not a marketing team on Planet Earth that can achieve decent album sales if PATSE is the best thing on it.
Morrissey expects the kind of record deal that artists attract who sell half a million in the UK (as he almost did for YATQ). Trouble is, his subsequent albums sold 200,000 then 85,000. If PATSE really is as good as the new album gets, he'll be lucky to sell 50,000 and that's why he's not being offered a decent deal.
One of two things can happen to end the current stalemate. Morrissey becomes so keen/desperate to release a new album, that he accepts his low-selling status and signs a deal with a small indie label (probably meaning no physical singles, and limited sales outlets for the album).
Or he provides evidence that he has the two brilliant singles that he needs to achieve much higher sales than YOR. 'Action' is just about ok and would probably get playlisted on Radio 2 but, if I worked for a record company, I'd want to make sure he had at least one other song that was considerably better up his sleeve. For what it's worth, I'm optimistic and I think a new album will come out in 2012 - I expect Morrissey will just swallow his pride and put it out on a small label...