'High School' / 'California' / 'Dog' trilogy of albums

[BrokenFrame]

I really like Low In High School, but it really is the album without applause. My favs are "I wish you lonely", "home is a question mark" and "In your lap".

 

[snoddywilko]

Joe chiccarelli production is awful ! He destroyed songs.

Most of songs on Word peace are really good, the deluxe edition is a most have.

Low in HS have superb lyrics, great songs too, except for one or two. I defend this record.

California have no interest, but i like wedding bell blues and starship.

I really don't anderstand the interest of I am not a dog...
I only keep What kind of people and perhaps Secret of music. The production is really too harsh and makes bleed my ears.

I agree: Chicarelli’s production style just grates on me.

A lot of the songs from World Peace…sounded great live but are a mess on record.

I really like a good chunk of the songs on both Low… & Dog… but there are also a few clunkers. For example: I can’t bear to listen to Spent The Day In Bed or the abysmal Who Will Protect Us…

California Son is a mixture of awful sounding trash (Bill, Starship etc) & really great and original reworking of songs (Only a Pawn… Suffer… Some Say I Got Devil)

It will be interesting to hear how the Bonfire…album sounds, especially being produced by somebody new.

What I’m really looking forward to, though, is seeing what new songs Morrissey & Alain conjure up…

 

[snoddywilko]

I really like Low In High School, but it really is the album without applause. My favs are "I wish you lonely", "home is a question mark" and "In your lap".

Low…has some truly excellent moments, but also some of the few Moz songs I can’t bring myself to listen to.

I love:

My Love…
I Wish You Lonely
Home is a Question Mark
I Bury the Living
The Girl From Tel Aviv…
When You Open Your Legs
Israel

I think are o.k:

Jackie…
In Your Lap

Can’t stand:

Spent the Day in Bed
Who Will Protect Us…

I really liked hearing the song debuted live but found the studio version disappointing:

All the Young People Must Fall in Love

 

[Mike Rourke]

Low…has some truly excellent moments, but also some of the few Moz songs I can’t bring myself to listen to.

I love:

My Love…
I Wish You Lonely
Home is a Question Mark
I Bury the Living
The Girl From Tel Aviv…
When You Open Your Legs
Israel

Q think are o.k:

Jackie…
In Your Lap

Can’t stand:

Spent the Day in Bed
Who Will Protect Us…

Low in High School = surprisingly crap lyrics meet surprisingly good music.
However unfairly, it's gone down critically as pretty much his worst ever album.
Dog on a Chain was thankfully a massive improvement. 5 or 6 genuinely brilliant songs - the first time we had that on a Morrissey album since the early 90s.

 

[snoddywilko]

Low in High School = surprisingly crap lyrics meet surprisingly good music.
However unfairly, it's gone down critically as pretty much his worst ever album.
Dog on a Chain was thankfully a massive improvement. 5 or 6 genuinely brilliant songs - the first time we had that on a Morrissey album since the early 90s.

There are also some great lyrics in the mix on Low In High School….but yes, it’s the music & the vocal melodies that do a lot of the heavy-lifting.

Dog has some great tracks: I particularly love What Kind of People… IANADOAC, Once I Saw…, Bobby…& My Hurling Days…. But again, it’s often the music & vocal melodies which attract me the most, with a smattering of decent lyrics.

It’s an odd thing to accept: that one of the most original lyricists ever no longer delivers consistently, but he still manages to produce some great lines & brilliant melodies, & most importantly: still writes songs that only he could write.

 

[Deleted member 30524]

California Son is my favourite of the three, he picked some really good songs, I love Carly Simon, so that one was a nice surprise too

If he simply had to do a covers album, I wish he'd done studio covers of some live tracks he has half-done though (like subway train)

I just can’t listen to side one at all.
I love side two tho.
It’s over still give goose bumps every
Time I hear it.

 

[skull]

California Son is something apart. Not a Morrissey album. A cover album Morrissey wanted to make. So we can't speak of trilogy here. Maybe World peace, Low and Dog, but not California Son.

 

[snoddywilko]

California Son is something apart. Not a Morrissey album. A cover album Morrissey wanted to make. So we can't speak of trilogy here. Maybe World peace, Low and Dog, but not California Son.

I would agree. 3 albums of Morrissey songs (unfortunately) produced by Chicarelli. A trilogy, of sorts.

 

[Harsh Truth]

Unpopular Opinion: "When You Open Your Legs" is a 10/10 Morrissey song. It's one of maybe three song off LIHS worth revisiting, maybe ever.

 

[snoddywilko]

Unpopular Opinion: "When You Open Your Legs" is a 10/10 Morrissey song. It's one of maybe three song off LIHS worth revisiting, maybe ever.

I’m also a big fan. I love the music & the vocal melody & how he achieves a perfect balance of suggestiveness & vagueness in the lyrics.

 

[Case]

Interesting reading this thread as I'm far higher on LIHS than I am on Dog, and five years on I feel like LIHS almost deserves an "underrated" badge. "Home is a Question Mark", "Spent the Day in Bed", and "I Wish You Lonely" are all tremendous and outside of In Your Lap (a career low), I find there to be a certain charm to the other tracks.

CS is fun. Love what he did with Lady Willpower and Wedding Bell Blues. I also thought those songs sounded great live.

Dog is all over the place. I've been playing "What Kind of People..." consistently since the release date. I think the title track is an interesting song that is worthy of finding its way into the live set, same with Jim Jim Falls. It's the singles on that record that I find to be so weak. I have it ranked last when it comes to his solo work, because although World Peace was heavily flawed, there was so much potential with that record. Dog is just puzzling at times.

 

[Harsh Truth]

Dog is all over the place. I've been playing "What Kind of People..." consistently since the release date. I think the title track is an interesting song that is worthy of finding its way into the live set, same with Jim Jim Falls. It's the singles on that record that I find to be so weak. I have it ranked last when it comes to his solo work, because although World Peace was heavily flawed, there was so much potential with that record. Dog is just puzzling at times.

I need to revisit this album. I listened to it constantly upon release and saw it as an improvement over LIHS and WPINOYB. But I can't say I've given it much mind in nearly two years.

I think each of these three albums has 2-4 great songs on it. Too bad we can't just pick 12 and summize the last 8 years into a high quality album called High Dog in a Low Peace World.

 

[snoddywilko]

I need to revisit this album. I listened to it constantly upon release and saw it as an improvement over LIHS and WPINOYB. But I can't say I've given it much mind in nearly two years.

I think each of these three albums has 2-4 great songs on it. Too bad we can't just pick 12 and summize the last 8 years into a high quality album called High Dog in a Low Peace World.

Great idea.

My 12 tracks would be (in no particular order)

My Love, I’d Do Anything For You
I Wish You Lonely
When You Open Your Legs
Israel
Scandinavia
What Kind of People Live in These Houses?
Once I Saw the River Clean
The Bullfighter Dies
World Peace Is None of Your Business
I’m Not A Man
Home is A Question Mark
All The Young People Must Fall in Love

Compiling this list made it very clear to me that Low in High School is my favourite Morrissey album of the past decade or more.

 

[Harsh Truth]

Here are mine, in particular oder:

My Love, I'd Do Anything for You
What Kind of People Live in These Houses?
Home Is A Question Mark
When You Open Your Legs
Lover To Be

Jim Jim Falls
One of Our Own
Istanbul
Knockabout World
Once I Saw the River Clean
Staircase at the University

 

[Case]

I need to revisit this album. I listened to it constantly upon release and saw it as an improvement over LIHS and WPINOYB. But I can't say I've given it much mind in nearly two years.

I think each of these three albums has 2-4 great songs on it. Too bad we can't just pick 12 and summize the last 8 years into a high quality album called High Dog in a Low Peace World.

Give me:
1. I Am Not a Dog on a Chain
2. Spent the Day in Bed
3. My Love, I'd Do Anything for You
4. What Kind of People Live in These Houses
5. One of Our Own
6. Home is a Question Mark

7. Art-Hounds
8. I Wish You Lonely
9. Staircase at the University
10. Earth is the Loneliest Planet
11. Jacky
12. Jim Jim Falls