Tag Archives: Morrissey

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Song of the Day #1,393: ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’ – Morrissey

Morrissey’s seventh solo album, 2004’s You Are the Quarry, was released seven years after his sixth. Considering he released all six of those records over the course of nine years, that was a major hiatus.

I didn’t really take to You Are the Quarry the way I did to Morrissey’s previous efforts. Whether that’s due to me or him, I don’t know. It could be I just wasn’t in the same mood or mindframe that made me a huge fan a decade earlier. Or perhaps it’s simpler than that, and the songs just weren’t as good.

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Song of the Day #1,361: ‘Certain People I Know’ – Morrissey

Best Albums of the 90s – #13
Your Arsenal – Morrissey (1992)

Three albums in my top 13 were released in 1992. As I’ve written more than a few times on this blog, that year was a musical touchstone for me in large part because it was a year of major life changes.

Two of the albums from ’92 that appear here are excellent in their own right but wouldn’t necessarily have earned a spot in the top 20 if they didn’t have such powerful personal associations. The third scores very high on both the personal and artistic scale, but I’ll get to that one in due time.

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Song of the Day #705: ‘There’s a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends’ – Morrissey

Morrissey is known mostly for his biting sense of humor, general bitchiness and a melodramatic morose streak a mile wide. He wants you to laugh while he’s crying.

But every once in awhile, in both his work with The Smiths and on his solo albums, Morrissey can knock you out with something deeply heartfelt.

One fine example is The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ (a John Hughes staple), which owes much of its poignancy to Johnny Marr’s delicate guitar work.

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