Morrissey - Years Of Refusal

X marks the (loss of) plot

Morrissey’s 10th album finds him cutting the experimentation that made 2006’s Ringleader Of The Tormentors so enjoyable, and replacing it with the kind of stodgy mid-tempo bovver boy filler that you take your toilet/bar breaks for when you see him live.

It’s a real shame to report this, as Ringleader seemed such a step in the right direction after You Are The Quarry, but producer Tony Visconti has been dispensed of. In place of his adventurous sonic landscapes (well, thunder sound effects), we’re left with sub-Snow Patrol dross such as It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore, which, once you’ve got the joke title, leaves you little else. Black Cloud is a riff played out for three long minutes, while even the live promise of All You Need Is Me sounds like a Maladjusted B-side here.

Where it’s good, as on the somewhat sentimental You Were Good In Your Time or Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed, Years Of Refusal is just about passable. The choice of the slower-paced I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris is also brave, and reminds you of 1995’s excellent Sunny. Everywhere else, however, it seems a fluffed own goal; something of an afterthought. Sorry Steve.

2 stars 2 stars

Decca | 4781435

Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
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