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Best of

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I am not all that familiar with Morrissey's music except for hearing an occasional song on the radio but not knowing the title of the song. I thought I would get myself a little more acquainted with his music by picking up this album. Needless to say it didn't require much for me to fall in love with his wonderfully witty and sarcastic lyrics, and the addictively infectious pop/rock melodies. All the songs amazingly catchy. I automatically fell in love with Morrissey's crooning. His voice is reminds me a bit of Chris Isaak, Elvis Presley and Raul Maolo (the ex-lead singer of The Mavericks). For once I can't say what songs are my favorites because all of them are incredibly melodic with some of the most superb songwriting skills ever. Picking a particular favorite song out of this excellent collection of some of Morrissey's best work is like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Some of my favorite songs include "Certain people I Know", "Hairdresser On Fire", and "Suedehead". After hearing this album I definitely know for sure that I need to start checking out Morrissey's other albums like "Viva Hate" and "Your Arsenal". "The Best of!" for me was a just a sample of the greatness that is Morrissey.

Morrissey seems to have a hard time pleasing anyone: fanatics are upset because this is not new material or doesn't include all their favourites; Smiths fans are upset because the music doesn't come up to Johnny Marr's best moments (as poor Morrissey sings knowingly on "Do Your Best and Don't Worry": "Compare the best of their days / With the worst of your days / You won't win"). Personally I'm somewhere in between, so this compilation suits me perfectly. The music is infectious and often quite inventive ("Suedehead"? "November Spawned a Monster"?
"Interesting Drug"?), the lyrics are quirky, funny, touching, and often insightful, the voice unique and (if it happens to capture you) addictive. Don't believe those who say that all Morrissey sounds alike, either, there's a lot of musical variety
here, from the trademark Smiths jingle-jangle guitars to bizarre dance music ("November Spawned a Monster"), glam rock ("Glamorous Glue"), some funky moments ("Sister I'm a Poet," "Interesting Drug"), 50s sock-hop pop ("Sing Your Life"), and torch ("I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday"). Also don't believe those who say he's "miserable"--these tunes are upbeat and the lyrics by and large hopeful and uplifting, though always wittily realistic. Right for Morrissey fans who are less than fanatics and as an introduction to the King of Alternative Rock.

The man who once sang "Best of, most of, satiate the need..." gave his personal blessing to Rhino records to release this hits collection. It is a very good collection, but where's "Jack The Ripper" and "You're The One For Me, Fatty"? It's a great companion for Americans to "My Early Burglary Years", for those only who have NO access to imports. And, regarding "...Fatty", it's a crime to not have "YOUR ARSENAL" in your collection anyway.

While a few tracks are missing, I applaud Rhino for including songs from all of Morrissey's record companies (That's a tough one in the U.S. because of copyright laws) and also for their precise, well-researched liner notes.

The cheap, angst-ridden Morrissey fans who think they associate with him will continue to whine about this CD and dismiss it as a "money-making scheme". However, us who identify with him, but realize he is already a very rich man and just live by his music will love this CD from front to back. (...)

This is an incredible compilation of great songs for anyone not exposed much to Morrissey's solo work or great career with the Smiths. I can honestly say that "Interesting Drug" is one of the best songs I've ever heard, and every song on this greatest hits sounds amazing. I HIGHLY suggest grabbing this CD if you want to be exposed to a truly great musician both as a vocalist and lyricist - Morrissey.

"The Best of Morrissey" is the Morrissey greatest hits collection for the American market. In Britain, and here in Australia, we get "Suedehead: The Best of". This version covers the first ten years of his solo career (1988-1997), and contains 21 tracks.

I remember when I first heard Morrissey's music. It was the last year of high school, and I was studying Oscar Wilde in literature. To help me study, I went on the net and searched the P2Ps for "Oscar Wilde", in case there was a reading or performance of one of his works I could download (I don't use that sort of thing these days, mind you). Nothing much came up except for something by a "Morrissey". I downloaded it, and there was a smooth voiced man speaking passionately on it about how incredibly quotable Oscar Wilde is, and how he thought that the upcoming "Importance of Being Earnest Film" was hopefully going to be really big. At the end of the track, there was a snippet of a song sung by Morrissey, singing his heart out. I found out much later the track was "Alma Matters", a kind of an appropriate song lyrically for the last year of high school. At the time, I had no idea, but I wanted to hear more, so I ended up getting a couple of compilations, one from his old band The Smiths, and the other from his solo career. Catchy tunes, witty lyrics, great voice, I quickly became a fan.

A lot of rock listeners prefer The Smiths to Morrissey's solo stuff. Though the quantity of classic tracks is a fair bit higher of a Smiths record than a Morrissey solo CD, I do prefer a good Morrissey solo song to a good Smiths one. The production is brighter, playful and colorful. The band toys with a lot more styles than The Smiths did. Morrissey sounds more like himself too, free to explore his interests more fully in his lyrics, be they "the romance of crime", boxing matches, or the music industry, along with his usual themes of unrequited love, boredom and the struggles of youth. It's a little deeper in its Britishness that the Smiths too (if that makes sense). He's a brilliant lyricist, and in this part of his career it's just as good as it was when he started.

If you're getting into Morrissey, I've got to warn you. Choose the compilation you get carefully. If you like what you hear and want to get more, you will end up with overlap, as Morrissey has rereleased and repackaged his songs in so many different ways. For that reason, I prefer the "Suedehead" compilation, as there are rare tracks there you won't find on any other full length CD.

Here's a rundown of how many of the songs on "The Best of!" you'll find on Morrissey's other full length discs:

3 are on "Viva Hate" (1988)
7 are on "Bona Drag" (1990, compilation)
1 is on "Kill Uncle" (1991)
5 are on "Your Arsenal" (1992)
3 are on "Vauxhall and I" (1994)
2 are on "World of Morrissey" (1995, compilation)
10 are on "Suedehead: The Best of" (1995, compilation)
1 is on "Southpaw Grammar" (1995)
1 is on "Maladjusted" (1997)
1 is on "My Early Burglary Years" (1998, compilation)
1 is on "Rare Tracks" (1998, compilation)

The "rare track" is Lost, a B-side originally from the "Roy's Keen" single. I would have preferred the B-side "I Can Have Both" (one of my favorites, and one Morrissey used to do live often), but "Lost" has grown on me. It's a mid-tempo song with lush production about a skywriter, a pilot of one of those planes that writes things with the smoke. It's well sung, and has some touching lyrics. "Everybody's lost, but pretending they are not." I know what he means...

This compilation comes with a nice thick booklet, which I always like. It contains full lyrics, a few pictures of Morrissey, a lengthy foreword of sorts by Michael Bracewell, speaking very highly of the music and its singer. I think he overanalyses a bit in it, but no matter. Where each song charted in both the UK and US is also listed, which is interesting. ("Lost" peaked at #671 in the UK. Hehe!). I also just notice that Morrissey himself recommends some albums for the listener to check out in the back page of the booklet. (Jobriath, Phil Ochs, The Ramones, Nancy Sinatra and Burt Bacharach). Interesting choices...

If you're looking for a one disc overview of Morrissey, this is probably the best one to get. If you think you may become a fan, (and if you like this, you probably will do) you might want to pick up another compilation (like "Bona Drag" or "Suedehead") to avoid a bit of overlap later.

Morrissey has released as many compilations as he has proper albums, and this one covers his entire work from 1988's "Viva Hate" through 1997's "Maladusted." The familiar tunes are here, including "Suedehead," "November Spawned..," "The More You Ignore Me..," and "The Last of the Famous..." But some other key songs are also missing. I'd gladly trade in "Do Your Best and Don't Worry" for the excellent "Will Never Marry" or "I Can Have Both." Plus, I'd be happy to see "The Loop" or "Pregnant for the Last Time" in exchange for the album track "Glamorous Glue." Most notable of all, "Ouija Board" is not present on this disc, proving that Morrissey has since grown truly embarrassed by this song. Nevertheless, this is an overall fine collection of tunes from one of the UK's last great poets.

If you can get past that eerie cover shot, you shall discover a lot of great songs by a real talent. Poor Craig Kilborn tried to promote this man's latest work, but, alas Morrissey has never really caved into commercial pressures, now, has he?

When this album was released, it probably was a safe bet to say that Morrissey may have been finished. Granted, 3 years later, he proved that wrong, but in 2001, Morrissey simply was out of the field in music.

The album doesn't have any high ideas about itself. It simply tries to get a mix of the best A-sides and the best album tracks, and does a very good job. While it is sad that they didn't do a second disc of B-sides, considering that Morrissey's B-sides often were his greatest tracks, the disc gives not only a good overview of his career, but also offers a good entry point for neophytes.

The album starts off with the popular favorite "The More You Ignore, the Closer I Get". Clearly, the compilers were trying to get out of the way the one song the American audience would know. However, once it got the 'hit' out of the way (seeing how Morrissey really only had one minor hit in America), it could go on to cover the bases. It covers not only the required ("Everyday Is Like Sunday", "November Spawned A Monster", "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"), it also hits upon some of the songs that truly are his best, like "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday", and the never before released in America "Lost".

However, there are a few missteps. Annoyingly, they use the single mix of "Tomorrow", which sounds too clean, lifeless, and makes the vocal too prominent in the track. It kind of kills it. Then they used "Hold Onto Your Friends" from Vauxhall and I. Frankly, I would have preferred them to put on "Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself", or "Speedway", instead of that cliche ridden tune.

Overall, the compilation does it job very nicely. It gives you what you want, and while it may not be what you need, it surely goes down nicely. If you aren't convinced about Morrissey's solo career greatness, this is the place to start.

When Morrissey decided he was done with The Smiths, it was the usual comments about wanting to grow beyond the confines of the band. While some of the solo albums do make the creative break form the sound of The Smiths, a great deal of this "Best Of" sound like The Smiths with a few minor variations. Which says that while Johnny Marr's guitar was the perfect foil for Morrissey's manic/depressive lyricism, Morrissey possesses such a strong individual musical personality that he will always just be Morrissey. He still played against strong musical personalities after The Smiths, like Stephen Street, Alain Whyte and Mick Ronson, to name three.

Even they were only the coloration to Morrissey's mythology...lovable but unreachable, accessable but self-absorbed, and the words that millions of alienated young folks could wrap themselves up within like foggy London cloaks. The initial solo forays like "Suedehead" or "Every Day Is Like Sunday" were perfect transcriptions of the contradictions of being Morrissey, sounding first apologetic for the tragedy then repulsed by the intrusion. "Come Armegeddon, come" indeed!

This is a pretty good thing for us. Morrissey's individually unique vocal style is welded to his weirdly poetic creeds for all of this CD's 21 tracks. It is a generous sampling from his solo CD's from 1990's "Viva Hate" to 1997's "Maladjusted," with one previously unreleased b-side single. These are also songs that Morrissey himself decided should go here. Because while his US Cult of fans managed to pull every album into the American Top 100, only one - really! - single ever cracked the Top 100.

"The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" managed to claw its way to 46 on the American charts. Naturally, it leads off this CD. Then we are treated to a wide variety of instantly recognizable moping as only Morrissey can deliver. While his personality overrides everything, the musical styles do manage a few surprises. My favorites are when producer Mick Ronson and Morrissey endeavored to become the second coming of Ziggy Stardust on "Your Arsenal." (Morrissey must have dug it, too; five songs are taken from that album.) Coming off like a Bowie or Mott acolyte, the glam guitars that grind through "Glamorous Glue" and "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" are as close as the Moz came to 'rocking out.' (After listening to the tracks from "Your Arsenel," you are left to ponder: Any wonder that Morrissey championed the re-issue of tragic glamster Jobriath's anthology?)

The lyrical sarcasm and emotional kinks are all here on glorious disarray. One of my favorites is from "Disappointed," where he croaks out "this is the last song I will ever sing...No, I've changed my mind again!" atop a riff that quotes "How Soon Is Now," one of The Smiths' best moments. Post-Smiths, Morrissey was also able to mature a little. In the song "Sing Your Life," which sounds produced to hit a commercial bulls-eye by the chart-topper team of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, Morrissey seems to be outlining his musical autobiography. "Others sang your life," he beckons, "but now is your chance to shine...so sing your life! All the things you love, all the things you loathe."

That just about sums up the idiosyncrasies of Morrissey at his best. This "Best Of" covers plenty of ground for those looking for a starter kit, along with The Smiths' "Singles."

I recently saw a video by morissey called tomorrow on VH1 Classic and thought the song was cool. So I decided to check this release out. I am so glad I did because their are so many great songs on this collection. Morrissey writes from the heart and has a wonderful singing voice. You can hear the pain in his voice in the song "tomorrow" This is a geat disc. Check it out!!!