Years of Refusal

Morrissey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 17, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lost Highway
• ASIN: B001NPUGX2
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,268 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Morrissey will release "Years of Refusal" in the US February 17, 2009 on Attack/Lost Highway. "Years of Refusal" will be Morrissey's first studio album since 2006's UK #1 "Ringleader of the Tormentors". In February, Morrissey will begin the US leg of his world tour that includes rare intimate club dates.

The late Jerry Finn, who previously worked on 2004's critical and commercial smash "You Are the Quarry", produced "Years of Refusal" which is the last album he worked on. The single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris", which Morrissey debuted during his sold out 2007 world tour, will precede the album. Long time band members Boz Boorer, Jesse Tobias, Matt Walker, and Solomon Walker play on the album, which also features a contribution from Jeff Beck on the track "Black Cloud".

Morrissey is often recognized as the most important British musician of his generation. The New York Times recently stated, "Morrissey isn't just any singer: he has become one of the defining rock stars of the past few decades by virtue of his grand voice, his grander songs, and his charming habit of playing with melodrama". His influence is felt worldwide through the countless artists that cite him as their primary inspiration. "Years of Refusal" is a masterful work that finds Morrissey and the band at their best with a muscular sound and the inimitable voice and lyrics of a legend.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Years Of Great Music Listening, February 17, 2009

By 

alainsane (U.S. Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Years Of Refusal (MP3 Download)

This album took a while to grow on me, but having listened to it for two solid weeks (since its leak), this album is much more cohesive and more appealing to me as a whole than either of the last two albums. In my opinion, Years of Refusal is Morrissey's best album since Vauxhall & I.

It doesn't hurt that the album includes the stellar "All You Need Is Me," but there are many other standout tracks, including "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore," "..Arms Around Paris," "...Squeezing My Skull," and "...Goodbye Will Be Farewell". The album really rocks and I have it cranked up in the car all the time.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still ill..., February 17, 2009

By 

Nse Ette (Lagos, Nigeria) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Years of Refusal (Audio CD)

Morrissey's 9th studio album is another standout. It's more of what we've come to expect from him: catchy upbeat rockers with dark and witty lyrics.

Take "Mama lay softly on the riverbed" for instance, marching beats give way to a son's dark and melancholic lament over his mother's death. "Mama, who drove you to it? Was it the pigs in grey suits persecuting you? Uncivil servants unconcerned at how they frightened you".

"Black cloud" with it's quirky catchy tune sounds very much like something by his alma mater, The Smiths. The interesting "When last I spoke to Carol" marries intermittent flamenco guitars and mariachi horns with a Latin-style rhythm.

"Sorry doesn't help" is sunny and bouncy, contrasting the sombre lyrics, "Sorry won't bring back my love" he whines. Similar is "That's how people grow up" with splashes of operatic-sounding vocals. "One day goodbye will be farewell" is upbeat and charming with lyrics alluding to death and urging one to appreciate loved ones while they are still living. It has a brief mariachi horn break.

There are just two ballads and they are both outstanding! The swelling Phil Spector meets U2-sounding "It's not your birthday anymore", and "You were good in your time", the latter a cinematic sounding song with stirring strings, crooned vocals, and an eerie sounding electronic coda.

Morrissey is still ill.

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His best solo work., February 17, 2009

By 

southgate (New York, N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Years of Refusal (Audio CD)

While most of his idols' best work came early in life, here is this charming man on the cusp of 50 doing his best solo work.
This is an album bursting at the seams with rocking guitars, ambitious flourishes, and the most lovelorn lyrics Morrissey has written for years.
From the splendidly ludicrous mariachi frills of "When I Last Spoke To Carol" and "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell" to the full-throttle power pop stomp that is the opening "Something Is Squeezing My Skull", he has never been more sure of himself.
"That's How People Grow Up" is one of the most honest songs he has written, about the narcissistic arrogant swine that he could be: "I was wasting my life always thinking about myself" he intones over Boz Boorer's driving guitar riff.
Despite approaching the critical middle age line, he still sings with the swooning self-pity of his Smiths days.
"On this ninth solo outing his backing music is at times uncomfortably cosy, but his complaints (about prescription drugs, horrid journalists and, naturally, lovelessness) are yelped, gurgled and growled with the old élan. Long may his adolescence continue". -Michael Deacon
The album was produced by Jerry Finn, responsible for his resurrection on "You Are The Quarry", who died shortly after the record was completed.
My highlights: "That's How People Grow Up", "Something Is Squeezing My Skull' and "One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell"

Greatest Hits (Deluxe Version)