A
Ann Coates
Guest
There are two free weekly "alternative" publications in Toronto: Eye and NOW. They have both reviewed YATQ:
Kieran Grant, Eye
****/*****
It'd be churlish to greet this unforseen comeback with a backhanded compliment, but what the hell, we're slags: Morrissey's first album in seven years wouldn't feel as triumphant had he not veered off the rails with 1997's regrettable Maladjusted, then slid to a halt on the precarious edge of retro/novelty status. Faint praise aside, it's no overstatement to add that You Are The Quarry is as vital a Moz moment as any since he went solo. The album's elegant pop-rock sway, polished by producer-du-jour Jerry Finn, packs non-stop lyrical firepower, be it on indictments of US cultural imperialism, and uncool Britannia (opener "America Is Not The World", frothing lead single "Irish Blood, English Heart"), a delightfully jaunty love letter to Latino gang culture in Morrissey's adopted LA home ("The First of the Gang To Die") or a gorgeously written ballad ("Come Back To Camden"). And you still get all the solipsism and righteousness you'd expect from titles like "I Have Forgiven Jesus" and "How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel." In short: to like Morrissey is to like Quarry.
Tim Perlich, NOW
***/***** = "swell"
The first album of new material from the Mozzer in seven years, You Are The Quarry (out Tuesday) is neither a stunning return to form nor a complete artistic failure. It's more like a half-assed plea for attention. He starts out promisingly by dressing down the United States for not electing a black, gay or woman president in America Is Not The World, then assails Oliver Cromwell and the British Monarchy in Irish Blood, English Heart before trying to piss off any Christians he may have missed with the blithely blasphemous I Have Forgiven Jesus. Sadly, the rest is frightfully uneventful. Our dear boy mopes like Rufus Wainwright about being boring and unloved to jaunty tunes spruced up with superficial synth dressing. And this took seven years?
- NOW will be receiving a nasty letter in response from yours truly.
Kieran Grant, Eye
****/*****
It'd be churlish to greet this unforseen comeback with a backhanded compliment, but what the hell, we're slags: Morrissey's first album in seven years wouldn't feel as triumphant had he not veered off the rails with 1997's regrettable Maladjusted, then slid to a halt on the precarious edge of retro/novelty status. Faint praise aside, it's no overstatement to add that You Are The Quarry is as vital a Moz moment as any since he went solo. The album's elegant pop-rock sway, polished by producer-du-jour Jerry Finn, packs non-stop lyrical firepower, be it on indictments of US cultural imperialism, and uncool Britannia (opener "America Is Not The World", frothing lead single "Irish Blood, English Heart"), a delightfully jaunty love letter to Latino gang culture in Morrissey's adopted LA home ("The First of the Gang To Die") or a gorgeously written ballad ("Come Back To Camden"). And you still get all the solipsism and righteousness you'd expect from titles like "I Have Forgiven Jesus" and "How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel." In short: to like Morrissey is to like Quarry.
Tim Perlich, NOW
***/***** = "swell"
The first album of new material from the Mozzer in seven years, You Are The Quarry (out Tuesday) is neither a stunning return to form nor a complete artistic failure. It's more like a half-assed plea for attention. He starts out promisingly by dressing down the United States for not electing a black, gay or woman president in America Is Not The World, then assails Oliver Cromwell and the British Monarchy in Irish Blood, English Heart before trying to piss off any Christians he may have missed with the blithely blasphemous I Have Forgiven Jesus. Sadly, the rest is frightfully uneventful. Our dear boy mopes like Rufus Wainwright about being boring and unloved to jaunty tunes spruced up with superficial synth dressing. And this took seven years?
- NOW will be receiving a nasty letter in response from yours truly.
