I don’t know, an attraction to self destructive men who all ended up cracking up might worry morrissey about his own future and nature. Same with Neil Cassidy drop dead. Ginsberg both loved and mourned him because of his wild uncontrollable passion and that’s just one of life’s paradoxes. I think the thing that’s changed is that he’s become more of a songwriter in that he used to put everything into the lyrics and now he seems to use things like song structure and his vocal performance to infer meaning. Take a song like love is on its way out. The way the music is so flat and square at the start, the way he sings so flatly and unemotionally set against the musical change and sweep when love enters carry’s a lot of meaning that just reading the lyrics wouldn’t convey where as in the past it was a lot more cerebral. Now the meaning is presented more so with his heart and emotional senses than with simply the words
I agree completely that his focus on the melody, and rendering aspects of the vocal performance from a songwriting perspective. And I think all critics and fans and music writers could plumb the depths of those choices as you have demonstrated here. I just don't think that he would be any more forthcoming about explaining those choices – why he chose to sing how he sang on a particular track, the elements of the musical arrangement that his cowriter presented that were intriguing, any sort of production suggestions or notes that were helpful in completing the song etc. he's never been that forthcoming about that kind of stuff I don't expect that to change. And further to use Johnny as an example, there's a pretty delightful YouTube video of him playing "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" I think NME's song stories, and he explains a little bit about how it developed, mostly it's one of those I picked up this guitar and this is the song that came out" I mention that because even if they wanted to, I'm not sure that that artissts/and musicians could explicate with precision, their creative choices beyond something like "oh this moved to me and these of the words that came out " The work of analysis is listener, I don't think the writers have much to offer to demystify the process.
I will say though I agree with. Overall analysis of the points of emphasis for current day Morrissey songwriting, I also think the drawback to his writing in this way is that even if one can appreciate the aesthetic of the performance, the heartfelt nature of the singing, the emotion behind it, because there's so pointed (often political) simple messaging from a lyrical perspective, unless one gets on board the "message" or find its it resonant I think that's going to limit the appeal of the song. So much of his current output seems predicated on on "old man ranting at the cloud" or finding deep somber disappointment at the way life has unfolded, if its not Moz in political protest singer mode.
I can fully hear the rage, sorrow and condescension in almost every aspect of "Bonfire of Teenagers" for instance. I don't dismiss skill of the performance, nor the authenticity of the heartfelt emotion, but I all of those elements (when combined with the lyrics) contribute to a snidely dismissive song that does nothing for me.
I think Morrissey would feel much the same way if Al Martino wrote the most searingly beautiful standard extolling the virtues of veal v cutlets or Chrissie Hynde wrote a righteous rocker celebrating the cosmopolitan multiculturalism of the UK and dismissing the idea of a rooted geographic and concrete legacy of fixed ethnic identity in the UK and elsewhere that Moz seems dedicated to preserving and articulating.