You Are The Quarry (Gatefold)

Morrissey | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sanctuary Records
• ASIN: B0001WAOH6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,790 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. America Is Not The World

2. Irish Blood, English Heart (1st single)

3. I Have Forgiven Jesus

4. Come Back To Camden

5. I'm Not Sorry

6. The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores

7. How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel

8. First Of The Gang To Die

9. Let Me Kiss You

10. All The Lazy Dykes

11. I Like You

12. You Know I Couldn't Last

Editorial Reviews

MORRISSEY You Are The Quarry (2004 US exclusive limited edition 12-track CD album including the single Irish Blood English Heart presented in unique gatefold mini-LP style picture sleeve complete with fold-out picture/lyric poster!)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the redemption of Saint Morrissey, November 28, 2004

By 

Nathan Bethea "natebethea" (Sharana, Paktika, Afghanistan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Are The Quarry (Gatefold) (Audio CD)

It might just be that the patron saint of adolescent sexual frustration and malaise got tired of the shtick that made him so popular. From his pompadoured, "asexual" persona at the head of the Smiths to a decade of self-indulgent solo albums, Morrissey became very predictable: his album covers would feature a near-exact design, his song titles would be ridiculously wordy and the actual music would be relatively unremarkable.

That's changed. Morrissey hasn't sound this inspired since Viva Hate. In fact, songs like "Irish Heart, English Blood" actually rock - I would venture to say that Alain Whyte has finally proven to be a better co-writer than Stephen Street ever was (despite his helping to write "Suedehead"), and Morrissey finally manages to come across as being more honest than coy. "How Can Anyone Possibly Know How I Feel?" is indicative of this album as a whole: it retains Morrissey's biting, verbose lyrics (and title) and manages to be catchy at the same time. In fact, its guitar work sounds very similar to that of a brand-new band from Morrissey's dear Britain: Franz Ferdinand. The ability to confuse Morrissey's music with that of a band bursting with youthful vitality is a very, very pleasing thing.

This is the best work Morrissey has done in years, and it is most likely his best solo work yet. It's nice to see him finally step outside of his tired old formula; if this is his swan song, he's going out on a really high note.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Morrissey lays down the law!, May 24, 2004

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: You Are The Quarry (Gatefold) (Audio CD)

Seven years on the sidelines must have given Morrissey plenty of time to think about where his music has been, gone and will go, because when he finely sat down and recorded a new album, he sounded like Morrissey again. Like most of the reviewers here, I feel like this is his strongest work since those first couple of solo albums, filled with dour smiles and crusty observations. To wit, the state of pop music from singers "so scared to show intelligence, it might smear their lovely career." ("The World is Full Of Crashing Bores," which is a Moz title if ever there was.)

While songs like "Bores," "First Of The Gang to Die" and "Come Back to Camden" sure taste like Smiths/Morrissey of old, there are a couple of slam dunks that show an older and wizened Mo, in particular "America is Not The World" and "Irish Blood, English Heart." A stinging indictment of Bush politics and Prime Minister Tony Blair's willful lap dogging, it begs for understanding from a heart which "you say you don't need." Even with that kind of roiling discontent, "America" wouldn't be a Moz song without the get-out-clause, and here Morrissey ends the rant with the frustration of a patriot who tells his country and countrymen, "haven't you me with you now? I love you." It's a moment worthy of "The Queen Is Dead."

Even better is the album's first single, "Irish Blood English Heart," which compound those feelings. In lyrics that echo U2, Morrissey struggles with the love of homeland and the contorting dismay of, as he puts it, dreaming of being an Englishman who longs "...not to be baneful,
to be standing by the flag
not feeling shameful, racist or partial."

It's enough to make you wish you were in college again, ready to get your mope on. The musicians here aid in delivering on those old emotions. Despite what some may be saying, Blink 182 producer Jerry Finn does little to mess with Moz' general sound other than add a few electronic effects and making keyboardist Roger Manning a little more prominent. But it sure is nice to hear that a grown-up Morrissey can now project some grand old adult angst in the same tones delivered during his twenties.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Halfway back -- three and a half stars, June 6, 2004

By 

William Whyte (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Are The Quarry (Gatefold) (Audio CD)

It's so nearly great. The guitars chug along, doing nothing we haven't heard guitars do before. Some of the songs are shapeless, more like rambles with a tune than actual songs. But some are almost perfect, and they all have moments that could only come from Morrissey. "America is not the world" starts off seeming like it'll be frankly embarrassing, a childish rant, and then twists round on itself to come out entirely different, a spurned lover's overreaction. "I have forgiven Jesus" seems to be a ripoff of the courtroom scene in Trainspotting, ironic and no more, and then with the line "I have forgiven Jesus/for all the love He placed in me" it assumes tragic proportions, steeped in original sin. "How can anybody possibly know how I feel?" obsessively repeats "because you wear a uniform", astonished at the arbitrariness of power and the easiness of brutality. Nothing here quite matches "Speedway" off Vauxhall and I, or "Every Day is Like Sunday" off Viva Hate -- none of the songs have quite the tightness of structure to deliver the punch full-force -- but he's certainly more than halfway back.