As I live and breathe
Two albums that have killed me
Morrissey: Ringleader Of The Tormentors
Understandable hoo-hah greeted Morrissey's comeback in 2004. You Are The Quarry was warmly clasped to the national and international bosom because it was so great to have him back, signed to a record label, putting a record out that seemed buoyed and enriched by his self-imposed exile in Los Angeles. (It was self-imposed. We didn't really run him out of town with flaming torches, it's just that the truth is less headline-grabbing than the myth.) But Ringleader is so much better.
Produced by Tony Visconti with strings and sound effects and noodling and crashing drums, it is an album bursting with sound. These are some of the biggest songs Moz has committed to tape, and not just, like Life Is A Pigsty and Far Off Places in terms of sheer noise and grandeur. Dear God Please Help Me and At Last I Am Born are the album's real bookends, one wracked with doubt, the other seemingly filled with a conditional joy. He's always picked the best lead-off singles (even Dagenham Dave, off Southpaw Grammar gave hope!), and You Have Killed Me is right up there with Everyday Is Like Sunday, The More You Ignore Me and You're The One For Me. Such superb lyrics: "As I live and breathe/You have killed me."
Moz is on fine form throughout, lyrically, whether being blunt ("If the USA doesn't bomb you") or obtuse ("Visconti is me/Magnani you'll never be" - reference not to the album's producer, but to Italian director Luchino Visconti, and, I presume, to Italian actress Anna Magnani, star of Roma, Citta Operta). And honest! The "explosive kegs between my legs" line has been over-quoted by reviewers keen for an angle. Yes, there's a bit of sex on the album, but he always sang about sex in The Smiths, whether he wanted to get his hands on your mammary glands, or admitted to being a man of slender means. It makes for a neat headline: Morrissey gets some. But Ringleader is so much more than that. It's frank and at the same time shrouded in mystery. Rome is obviously good for him. Someone on a Music Week vox pop on 6 Music last week said that Morrisey was "old and fat" - what an idiotic thing to say - clearly the thoughts of a 19-year-old. Morrissey looks as good as he's ever looked. Age becomes him. All of this makes for his best album since Viva Hate - far better than Vauxhall And I, the landmark most seem to compare it to.
Secret Machines: Ten Silver Drops
Second album from the Texan trio, relocated in 2000 to New York for whatever's in the water. I have only recently purchased their first, Now Here Is Nowhere, on the back of this, what many are calling their first masterpiece. I concur. Just eight songs, most of them over five minutes long (and the magnificent Daddy's In The Doldrums coming in at almost nine), this is epic rock of a most subtle and intriguing order. Singer Brandon Curtis has a rather quiet voice, which really adds intrigue to these big rock canvasses. The rousing opener, Alone, Jealous And Stoned comes on like Coldplay, with chiming guitar, but as soon as he starts singing, it takes on an altogether more personal and cracked aspect. The drums of John Garza are massive and there's a lot of racket here for three guys. (I'd love to see them live, and see how they reproduce it.) I'm hearing so many disparate reference points, ranging from Placebo (that'll be his voice) and Gene Loves Jezebel (don't be scared) to old school Simple Minds. This is big music, but not without intricate feelings. It has capitivated me - and the single, Lightning Blue Eyes, seemed quite underwhelming when I heard, or saw, it on MTV2, with its slow-moving video. Now, in context, it reveals itself to be a marvellous, hypnotic beast.
On our recent drive to Bournemouth and back, these two albums provided a satisfying soundtrack. From different ends of the musical and geographical spectrum, and yet linked by sheer ambition and scope. Add these to Whatever You Say I Am and you've already got a pretty excceptional year for albums.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 10:23 AM
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14 Comments:
I haven't seen Secret Machines live but they're reputed to be very loud. I'm in two minds about them: I like them but I feel like I shouldn't (probably based upon an abiding hatred of Pink Floyd). They remind me of the bit in the Mighty Boosh where Howard is playing Vince an extremely long jazz track and waiting to point out the one tiny transcendent moment that he really likes.
I would recommend the September 000 EP/mini LP from 2003. It's five tracks, nearly half an hour long, and only £3.97 from Amazon. I prefer it to the first proper album but that may be just because it doesn't outstay its welcome.
It's hardly worth saying that Morrissey is great. I particularly love the cover of the new album - and covers are rarely things to be loved these days. I'm surprised the government haven't condemned the explosive kegs line as glorifying suicide bombers. I'm even more surprised that he hasn't claimed they have.
Am actually listening to Vauxhall and I as I write this! Yes, Ringleader is great! Am annoyed, though, as, having been to Earl's Court, I would have loved to go to the Palladium gig, but the only way you can get tickets for that now is through ebay - 87 people flogging tickets, mostly in pairs, for extortionate amounts of money, and those are just the ones that are still up there! I wish people couldn't/wouldn't buy tickets just to make themselves a load of money...
But moaning aside, yes, Quarry was good, but (aside from his working the word "self-deprecating" into a song, which was quite a feat), the only song I really loved was I Have Forgiven Jesus, and there's much more in that vein here. Yay!!
Dave - the cover always makes me do a double-take because he looks like Nigel Kennedy playing the violin (well, if you look fleetingly he does.)
The surprise is not that Morrissey could work "self-deprecating" into a song, but that he is familiar with the concept. Let Me Kiss You was my favourite from Quarry but I Have Forgiven Jesus is certainly the best title, and sometimes that's enough.
I wish you hadn't mentioned that he looks like Nigel Kennedy. Almost as much as I wish Andrew hadn't just pointed out on the radio that with his cold he sounds like Rory McGrath. (He does.)
I picked up the Morrissey one on my recent trip to Japan, where he's a god. I must say I like it much more than the last one. The older he gets, the better he is.
All these youthful Mozza detractors - what do they expect? A man with a full on quiff and gladiolas hanging out of his back pocket?
The good thing about the old fella is that his music has grown up with him. Very few artists can achieve this. The Boy Bragg springs to mind. Kevin Rowland doesn’t.
And please – NO, NO, NO! NEVER a Smith reunion.
With regards to the new Moz album, I couldn't agree more with you. Tonight, I walked home from work, after a particularly rough week that had seen me question just about everything I had ever done, to the dulcet tones of young Stephen Patrick, and it made me feel alive again. "Quarry" as no-one is calling it was great, made me bounce about a lot on Ayrshire beaches, but this album, by jiminy, made me feel like king of the world, well Fort William, tonight.
God bless yer Mozza.
Oh, and Doctor Who was rather jolly too, fan, and if you will, tastic.
Love the single and the songs Andrew mentions, but I will have to give the album more listens. I was initially disappointed but I always am because I want so much from Morrissey, although Jesse Tobias and Visconti have added some sparkle, which I've long felt his players lack, and himself is singing better than ever. I'll always hope for a Moz/Marr reunion - as opposed to a Smiths one necessarily - simply because talent should be with talent - they never stopped writing great songs 'together' and I'd love them to try again.
Ooooh the reference re. Gene loves Jezebel to the Secret Machines new CD has really intreaged me.
Andrew, what is your comment on that? Are they similar to GLJ and in what way - and would that be past or present GLJ and if I am to get really padantic, Jay Aston or Mike Aston version of GLJ (which would be present).
May have to go and buy this now..........
It's the track Daddy's In The Doldrums that reminds me of Gene Loves Jezebel. The classic period. It's the vocals that did it for me.
Thanks Andrew - I will have a listen........
Gene Loves Jez references - is this really a good thing?
Check out Michael Aston's last few albums - some really great stuff - think there was around 300+ people at his London gig a couple of months ago.......
Love lies Bleeding - in particular is awsome!
You've convinced me - just gone out and bought Secret Machines. Though buying things on the basis of recommendations of people I have only met on the internet doesn't bode well for my finances (or, in fact, say much for my social life.)
I listened to that September 000 EP for the first time in a while this morning. There's a track on there (Breathe) that sounds like Secret Machines doing the Small Faces, if you can imagine such a thing. And it's less than three minutes long. Just thought I'd mention it. As you were.
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