Rebels Without Applause released as a single track - initially on some region's YT, now to buy & stream (November 24, 2022)

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UPDATE (Nov. 25):

This Charming Bowie posted the story from official_morrissey_central / Instagram:

Morrissey's Rebels Without Applause is available today worldwide (including Britain) on Spotify,
courtesy of Capitol Records. The track is produced by Andrew Watt. This is Morrissey's first 'single' release since 'It's Over', taken from the 'California Son' album in November 2019. 'It's Over' peaked at number 1 in the UK vinyl chart.

Also now on Morrissey Central. Link posted by Famous when dead.

Rebels Without Applause - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - Rebels Without Applause

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

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Rebels_Without_Applause_(getmp3.pro).mp3

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we.tl

 

[Famous when dead]

That makes it even weirder. The version I'm listening to on Tidal is undoubtedly atrociously produced. Maybe people are listening to slightly different versions. I don't know.

The FLAC in downloads is free of any compression that sites & services use.
FWD.

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

My bet: Moz wanted to release the album in old style, with 4 singles, 3 b-sides each etc. He also wanted physical releases. It doesn't work like this anymore (unless you're Coldplay or Taylor Swift - if you sell millions, then you can have an active voice on deciding the strategy).
Once Morrissey realised what Capitol was going to do, he reacted his way, almost downplaying the album during the last concerts. It sounded like he suddenly lost interest in releasing, hence the lack of promotion by Moz camp (Jessie Tobias aside).
If he wants a record deal with a major, he has to play the game according to their rules. And please don't get me wrong, I'm not slashing him. I'm just trying to see both sides.

Yep, I said something like this earlier. I can't imagine he is happy.

 

[theprivilegeismine]

The FLAC in downloads is free of any compression that sites & services use.
FWD.

Going to try listening to that and see if it's any better. Thank you!

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

[Thank god the internet didn't exist when The Smiths released "Bigmouth" back in the day - I can only imagine the bile that would have been directed towards those (rather silly) chipmunk backing vocals by "Ann Coates"]

bile was via the NME letters page

 

[jmb066]

Hmm, live versions of Morrissey songs are usually better than recorded tracks so no surprise there. Definitely a better single choice than Veronica. Cancelled shows is a bummer, had tickets but at least I was notified before driving 6 hours. I will be buying tickets for the next tour/show. Im sure with all the noise it was decided to get a track out for the fans. Rebels is fantastic, love it. I swear no matter what he does some knob starts complaining, who cares about digital art work? Yes it would be nice for a 7", 12" or CD single. Maybe there will be, until then listen to the new track and smile that he is still making music. Wait!!! the production is off, we hated the last producer, now we are complaining about this one already. Don't like, go and listen to something else. I am on many music fan boards and this place is just sad with negativity.

There is no other band or artist that is consistent with quality as Moz/The Smiths. Please tell me who is consistently releasing amazing music at the 30 year + level. No one.

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

Great song, but like it's been with every producer since Steve Lillywhite, over- or oddly-produced. Chipmunk vocals, cardboard-box drums, and everything too compressed. But with Chiccarelli you'd get staccato electronic bomb bursts, and with Visconti you'd have an Italian children's choir. Oh well.

And Dirk Blaggard, who claims to have heard the whole album, said the production is great (without going into detail, of course). There's no arguing over taste (or imagined claims).

NO i meant on two songs it was better than live- BOT and Oblivian , I also said i was pissed as a fart when I heard it
Its why I didn't give any kind of breakdown. Sorry

 

[9 x Fined]

Not feelin' it

 

[BrokenFrame]

Hmm, live versions of Morrissey songs are usually better than recorded tracks so no surprise there. Definitely a better single choice than Veronica. Cancelled shows is a bummer, had tickets but at least I was notified before driving 6 hours. I will be buying tickets for the next tour/show. Im sure with all the noise it was decided to get a track out for the fans. Rebels is fantastic, love it. I swear no matter what he does some knob starts compiling, who cares about digital art work? Yes it would be nice for a 7", 12" or CD single. Maybe there will be, until then listen to the new track and smile that he is still making music. Wait!!! the production is off, we hated the last producer, now we are compiling about this one already. Don't like go and listen to something else. I am on many music fan boards and this place is just sad with negativity.

There is no other band or artist that is consistent with quality as Moz/The Smiths. Please tell me who is consistently releasing amazing music at the 30 year + level. No one.

People are just giving their real opinions, by your logic....you should just stop reading it.

 

[Anonymous moz junky]

i need to go and get my ears syringed because i cannot see what the problem is.
people on here are frothing at the mouth and i dont know why.

Other band forums I frequent have had very similar reactions after the studio cut of a song that's been played live comes out. Everyone has grown used to the live rendition and takes issue with the studio work that was completed often times before ever being played live. Will be interesting to see how these comments age after the full album has been out awhile. Track sounds fine to me.

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

With Johnny Marr as special guest. Exactly! Exactly what the Morrissey fans want to hear in 2022. You hypocrites!

You know. Its nuts that M obviously has the band ape Marr, given that letter.
Imagine if Marr had singers come on doing M impressions on new songs.
M is forever stuck in 1986

 

[theprivilegeismine]

Hmm, live versions of Morrissey songs are usually better than recorded tracks so no surprise there. Definitely a better single choice than Veronica. Cancelled shows is a bummer, had tickets but at least I was notified before driving 6 hours. I will be buying tickets for the next tour/show. Im sure with all the noise it was decided to get a track out for the fans. Rebels is fantastic, love it. I swear no matter what he does some knob starts complaining, who cares about digital art work? Yes it would be nice for a 7", 12" or CD single. Maybe there will be, until then listen to the new track and smile that he is still making music. Wait!!! the production is off, we hated the last producer, now we are complaining about this one already. Don't like, go and listen to something else. I am on many music fan boards and this place is just sad with negativity.

There is no other band or artist that is consistent with quality as Moz/The Smiths. Please tell me who is consistently releasing amazing music at the 30 year + level. No one.

Free speech. If you don't like it don't look at it.

Noone is criticising M himself. It's the production that's the issue and the reason we are so vocal is because we have a great track, his voice arguably better than it has ever been but a spoiled recording because someone went a bit loopy with effects. Effects he doesn't need and that make him sound a much lesser vocalist than he actually is. It sucks big time.

 

[jmb066]

People are just giving their real opinions, by your logic....you should just stop reading it.

Maybe, in most cases artist sites are to celebrate the music. Here we complain about everything. I truly wonder what will make fans here satisfied. Typically if an artist release something below their standards, why not just say nothing and move on? Don't buy it and they will get the message. Love the music, fan base is a wonder.

 

[jmb066]

Free speech. If you don't like it don't look at it.

Noone is criticising M himself. It's the production that's the issue and the reason we are so vocal is because we have a great track, his voice arguably better than it has ever been but a spoiled recording because someone went a bit loopy with effects. Effects he doesn't need and that make him sound a much lesser vocalist than he actually is. It sucks big time.

Ok, I am sure he did not listen to this and just said release away. Free speech of course, hard to not look when people here complain about everything. Lesser artist would of faded away already. Opinions are like, something, body part, can't remember. Carry on

 

[This Charming Bowie]

Central IG

 

[Dirk Blaggard]

California Son had two 'instant grat' releases prior to a traditional single:
It's Over & Morning Starship released prior to the first 'real' single Wedding Bell Blues.
(let's not mention the absolute mess around It's Over and it eventually becoming a real single too).
Both got radio airplay (with even the radio conflating 'single' & 'instant grat').
On streams, YT views & digital purchases combined - this won't scratch the surface of any chart.
Had it been a vinyl single - different story as it would stay on the vinyl singles chart for quite a while based on previous releases.
Regards,
FWD.

Yes,
I agree this isn't a new "Single" I think what we all mean, is it all seems messy and not like how M seemed to lay out the rollout
I think my wife is probably right, this digital taster and one more maybe. Then either the single or the lp.
If M is pissed I can see why. This track seems to be meant as a nice little LP track, not a lead-up to an LP, which was a "single" is. Which is what veronica is

 

[This Charming Bowie]

Yes,
I agree this isn't a new "Single" I think what we all mean, is it all seems messy and not like how M seemed to lay out the rollout
I think my wife is probably right, this digital taster and one more maybe. Then either the single or the lp.
If M is pissed I can see why. This track seems to be meant as a nice little LP track, not a lead-up to an LP, which was a "single" is. Which is what veronica is

The fact that the central IG post doesn't mention any of the instant grats from Dog - instead saying that this is the first single since "It's Over" - makes me think that there's hope for a proper physical release. Sidenote, it seems pertinent that Britain is mentioned by name in the story - it's looking increasingly likely that there's a British deal / arrangement in place now.

 

[Uncleskinny]

That is pitch-shifted and auto-tuned to f***

Why bother?

 

[ProdbyAnt]

An opinion from a music producer who's done work for the majors here and indie labels too. There are some pretty atrocious decisions here which really should have been caught many times over and I refuse to believe that Andrew Watt fully signed off on this.

Some people have rightly pointed out that there was a lot of autotune and vocal effects on the latest Ozzy album (which Andrew also produced). The difference is that the effects were for the most part tastefully added and didn't change the general timbre or sound of Ozzy's signature vocal style. The same cannot be said here.
Worst offender here is an absolutely horrific vocal glitch that can't be unheard at about 1:49 on "the blue flu" which is undoubtedly the result of poor time stretching. (If a vocalist is out of time then the vocal can be stretched to fit the backing music. Obviously this needs to be done with care (and tastefully) but here it has caused an actual artefact in the vocal track which is audible as a glitch.)

The "aaaand" at 2:39 is also a result of poor auto-tuning dragging the poor sound clip to whatever note it's been programmed to be. AutoTune is not offensive when done right and the reality of music these days is that pretty much everything bar a Tom Waits record has autotune on it. I actually thought it was excessively done on "IANADOAC" but it's far, far worse here.

I'm a huge Morrissey fan but safe to say this is the lowest studio production quality I've heard from one of his projects. Sucks for him, sucks for us.

 

[This Charming Bowie]

Why bother?

I could ask the same of you

 

[stux]

That Morrissey Central instagram post is good to read. Looks like good progress has been made, great that things are in place to release in Britain.

I’m liking the song. Producer seems to be trying to sound like The Smiths, this is isn’t infested with synths and seems nice and barebones to me. The Marr-ish guitars are an obvious call but the Andy Rourke like basslines are the biggest standout for me.