Customer Reviews

Years of Refusal

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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)

Lacking the excitement upon release of 'you are the quarry' and the depth of production of 'Ringleader of the tormentors' it is a wonder that somehow 'Years of Refusal' turns out to be Morrissey's strongest solo work since the 1994 release of 'vauxhall..' and 'your arsenal'.
In fact, this album sounds something like 'your arsenal' pt 2. But (i love beginning sentences with but just to horrify english teachers) Morrissey has matured in his songwriting or lyric writing to be more precise - and what starts out as another rocker ends with 4 very thoughtful songs that flow into each other beautifully..

The only weakness of this album is the fact that 'all you need is me' and 'that's how people grow up' have been familiar to us for the last couple years - already appearing on a greatest hits compilation and performed in several live performances.. Nevertheless, they fit in just fine and are only annoying when put into the context of the messy delayed release of this album.

The funny thing about Morrissey's albums is the strength they generate over time. He always tends to get mediocre reviews upon release but then they grow in the mind as people start to understand them more.. It is no accident that people are just now reevaluating works like 'maladjusted' and 'southpaw grammer'. So it comes as no surprise that people are kind of luke warm about 'years of refusal' and 'ringleader'.. I'm not holding my breath because I know that this work is going to survive.. as his lyrics always do.

I'm a big Moz fan, have been for a while. I was pretty excited when I first pushed play the first time, especially since I really enjoyed the single however, I got kind of disappointed with this album (exactly how it happened with Ringleader). I bought tickets for his Tour of Refusal, mainly because of his early stuff and YATQ however, I'll be attending with sort of a bad after taste.

Morrissey's "Years of Refusal" came at a right time for me. I've been enjoying it immensely.

I am an "old" fan, who went to my first Smith's concert when they came to California in 1986. I'm also a reader,a lover of classic and offbeat old film and literature, and other quirky voices Morrissey draws ideas from. Finally, I'm a lover of many kinds of music. Morrissey impresses me with his depth and breath over the years--from the gorgeous jangly sounds of Smith's and some post-Smith work, to the hopping rockabilly of his 1990's work and crunchy early-punk and glam sound of his current band. He gives us a range here, and still puts intelligence and emotion into the songs.

I miss here a really beautiful soft song like "Tomorrow," but he gives so many other vocal treats here I had much to be satisfied with. I've listened to this album a number of times now, and find different songs suit different moods. And I'm impressed by the range of songs reviewers have chosen to highlight as the "best" of the album. There is a lot here.

The soaring vocals of "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" was my first favorite on the album--evoking for me the despair and loneliness of Oscar Wilde at the end of his life (this brilliant, witty, warm man was utterly destroyed by the prison sentence in a work house, the repetitive walking on a treadmill, the lack of human companionship, the loss of his children--look at the pictures in Richard Ellmann's bio). I was sure this is what the song was about already, but now that I saw the video--with its references to The Picture of Dorian Gray--I'm sure that sadness is what the song evokes.

I also adore to big crunchy glam rock of the final song of the album "I'm OK by Myself." And the beginning of "That's How People Grow Up" with its operatic voice that fades into rollicking rock is fun. As the back of the disc cover tells us, this is one to play loud. These are big noisy and strong songs of survival. "As for me, I'm OK, for now anyway" Morrissey says. I always savor those dark zingers that this writer gives us.

As opposed to people who say this is more of the same Morrissey, I think it's a different Morrissey voice, one that is still developing and voicing the struggles of advancing adulthood. As an artist he is still creating. It's nice to grow older with him and still rock out. And when I long for the voice he gave me in the 1980s and 1990, I have his wide rich discography to turn back to.

There are 5 songs on this album that are stellar, while the rest are all slightly as good. If you haven't bought a Morrissey album since college, now's the time to get back in. I could listen to "All you need is me" over and over on a loop forever. I love this album.

Yes, Morrissey is back. Still ignored and unloved. Still living life under a "black cloud." Still craving human touch. He's throwing his arms around Paris because "only stone and steel accept (his) love." Perhaps we should be bored of it all by now. But the voice is still there. And the drama. Nearly three decades into his stellar career, Morrissey is still miserable and the world is still a horrible place. "Why change now? It hasn't."

Standout new tracks: "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore," and "I'm OK By Myself." Plus the two excellent previously available songs: "All You Need Is Me" and "That's How People Grow Up."

Morrissey came to the studio with orginal and often witty lyrics, as usual. But the music sounds casually pasted onto his singing. Morrissey needs a _real_ band, especially if those supporting musicians are going to play loudly on almost every track. Its not a bad idea to use a harder and louder sound to shake things up, but sadly the musical instrumentation is uniformly generic and forgettable.

I could write a track by track expose, but I choose to keep my comments general. As a self-avowed dedicated fan of Morrissey and having followed his career very closely since his "Your Arsenal" I must say overall I am disappointed by this recent effort. Why, you may ask? Simply because none of the album tracks, save for maybe "Shame is the name", "Something is squeezing my skull" and/or "When last I spoke to Carol" there is nothing here that compares to the pre-release hype surrounding "Throwing my Arms around Paris" which generated considerable excitement in this listener. Unfortunately, after repeated listenings, many of the "Years..." tracks cannot compare. Many of Morrissey's themes are rehashed, recycled and simply tired. The vigor which characterizes the first track, "Something..." cannot measure up to the rest of the album, including the 2 tracks that aren't included on the regular album, namely, "Shame..." and "Because of my..." Morrissey puts in a good effort here, but ultimately falls short of the many great tracks found on his past efffort, "You are the Quarry". Also, the mere fact that two of the tracks had already been included on the greatest hits compilation last year, "All you need is me" and "That's how people grow up" we're left with the very real possibility that Morrissey no longer values his fan bases's discriminating tastes, but simply wants to make hay with as little as possible to garner new fans and critical interest, makes absolutely no sense to me. Least of which is the fact that on Amazon you can get the same tracks for 4 bucks, while on i-tunes, which I sadly preorderd, you get it for 10 bucks. It seems Morrissey is on the verge of flat out retirement or an accounting for his scheming ways and repackaging strategy. I think his fans deserve more, and I think he deserves a better self-valuation than he gives himself credit. If this album was rushed by record executives for quicker profits, than all the worse for this situation. I also wonder if Moz could benefit more from a different song writing partner, as Boz Boorer is recycling his own riffs and tired out drum beats. Who can tell if there is more to mine from Morrissey's mind. Only time can tell, apparently.