Speculation - new album recording in January 2024?

[Anonymous]

Personally I'd rather have an uneven or even crap album than none at all. Even something as ghastly as Low in High School had one or two half decent tracks. The boat has long sailed on Morrissey being one of those artists with a small but perfect formed discography. To get anywhere close to that, he should probably have retired after releasing Vauxhall.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Personally I'd rather have an uneven or even crap album than none at all. Even something as ghastly as Low in High School had one or two half decent tracks. The boat has long sailed on Morrissey being one of those artists with a small but perfect formed discography. To get anywhere close to that, he should probably have retired after releasing Vauxhall.

all the things we here on solo think he should do or should have done, the list is endless.

It is the true ‘list of the lost’, because it’s safe to assume that he never reads our futile complaints here.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

Who are the 10? UnstableTrina? Or does she count as 4 with her Walter Ego?
Sh*tfiled? Babs? Mad Marianne? Bonfire Richy? Collins? Who else ?

So few on solo know or care about the people you’ve mentioned.

 

[Orange Crush]

There is nothing to be positive about right now.

Oh, I don't know about that - I've just finished a 200 piece jigsaw puzzle.

 

[Surface]

I don’t understand this desire for Moz to be endlessly prolific and commit his every thought and rumination to tape continuously until he is dead. Why? So many artists go on and on like that, bloating their back catalogues with 30 or 40 half-arsed albums when the ones that people remember and care about will always be the same 4 or 5.

Recording like that is just born out of boredom - and because the only people who buy it are the diehards and completists, quality control doesn’t matter. That goes for Elton, McCartney, Dylan, Simon, a ton of others who don’t know when to quit – and Moz, if dreck like Kerouac’s Crack is anything to go by. Morrissey’s album sales are in the floor, he has never been less viable as a music artist than he is now and to continue recording in that knowledge would just be stupid. A better approach in my mind would be to combine the very, very best bits of Bonfire and Without Music, cull the filler and release one strong album with a brand new single that he hasn’t played live. Releasing three forgotten albums that sell about 6,000 each is a waste of time.

I find the whole music business very odd. I agree with your comments regarding releasing albums just for the sake of it in the main but some bands do buck the trend and others do what you suggest which also seems to work. James as an example release albums every couple of years which sell relatively well and leads to a level of interest that means they can play arena's on a regular basis. The opposite to that is the notoriously lazy New Order who will happily go 5 to 10 years without releasing an album but when they do they sell really well and then they ride the wave for a number of years playing huge venues world wide.

 

[SuedeMoz]

Personally I'd rather have an uneven or even crap album than none at all. Even something as ghastly as Low in High School had one or two half decent tracks. The boat has long sailed on Morrissey being one of those artists with a small but perfect formed discography. To get anywhere close to that, he should probably have retired after releasing Vauxhall.

I get your point but I think putting out uneven and crap albums only shrinks his fanbase and further diminishes his reputation. It comes across as going through the motions, phoning it in, etc. I'd rather he take more time and craft something better than rush to the studio with demo-quality tracks and brag about how little he works on the songs (it shows).

It's a moot point now as he can't release anything... but what about just releasing a solid single with great b-sides if he doesn't have enough good tracks for a full album? If he would self-release he could release what he wanted when he wanted - singles, EPs, albums, etc.

 

[Liverpool Lou]

And reason and freedom is a waste
It's a lot like life

Let’s play, master and servant?

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I love older artists who still try to push forward. Even though I’m not a real and proper fan, I think Dylan does that. Cohen did. Bowie did. Springsteen does. Thastrom, obviously. Scott Walker obviously did. Swans. Nick Cave, of course. Johnny Cash did.

I think Morrissey tries to, but to me, his heart isn’t in it anymore.

 

[PapaJackAss]

He shouldn't record anything with this current live band lineup! Not even a live album or video!
This is the weakest group of "musicians" Moz has ever had.. Only the drummer is worthy!
If this is the band Moz chooses to take into the studio then this ship really is sinking!

 

[Surface]

I love older artists who still try to push forward. Even though I’m not a real and proper fan, I think Dylan does that. Cohen did. Bowie did. Springsteen does. Thastrom, obviously. Scott Walker obviously did. Swans. Nick Cave, of course. Johnny Cash did.

I think Morrissey tries to, but to me, his heart isn’t in it anymore.

I also think sometimes you have to have a rethink about what you want to be. Liam Gallagher is a great example, when Oasis split he jumped straight into Beady Eye and failed big time. He then took a couple of years out, realised he wasn't a great song writer, formed song writing partnerships put a brilliant backing band together and is now as big if not bigger than Oasis were. The documentary 'As It Was' on Netflix is absolutely superb and that was before he sold out Knebworth for 2 nights.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I also think sometimes you have to have a rethink about what you want to be. Liam Gallagher is a great example, when Oasis split he jumped straight into Beady Eye and failed big time. He then took a couple of years out, realised he wasn't a great song writer, formed song writing partnerships put a brilliant backing band together and is now as big if not bigger than Oasis were. The documentary 'As It Was' on Netflix is absolutely superb and that was before he sold out Knebworth for 2 nights.

I can only say that I agree. Wholeheartedly. Liam has done everything right. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

 

[Anonymous]

I think we can safely give up on 'Without Music the World Dies'. Despite Alain's return, the tracks presented live from this LP have not been particularly strong, and if any record label was interested we'd have heard by now. Time to move on and try again.

 

[Redacted]

His writing is absolute shit and his new band sucks

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

I think we can safely give up on 'Without Music the World Dies'. Despite Alain's return, the tracks presented live from this LP have not been particularly strong, and if any record label was interested we'd have heard by now. Time to move on and try again.

 

[Eldritch]

I love older artists who still try to push forward. Even though I’m not a real and proper fan, I think Dylan does that. Cohen did. Bowie did. Springsteen does. Thastrom, obviously. Scott Walker obviously did. Swans. Nick Cave, of course. Johnny Cash did.

I think Morrissey tries to, but to me, his heart isn’t in it anymore.

I agree. I think an artist's job is to make art. The world is full of Morrissey's contemporaries who have pretty much given up on releasing new music: The Cure, Scritti Politti, Sisters of Mercy, Prefab Sprout, Human League... Tears For Fears, Psychedelic Furs and Soft Cell did release albums but about 20 years after the last one. If you don't move forward, you're just a tribute band to your younder self.

Quality control is of course sadly another thing. LIHS and Dog had enough good stuff to justify their existence in my opinion, but the two unreleased albums seem bleak.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I agree. I think an artist's job is to make art. The world is full of Morrissey's contemporaries who have pretty much given up on releasing new music: The Cure, Scritti Politti, Sisters of Mercy, Prefab Sprout, Human League... Tears For Fears, Psychedelic Furs and Soft Cell did release albums but about 20 years after the last one. If you don't move forward, you're just a tribute band to your younder self.

Quality control is of course sadly another thing. LIHS and Dog had enough good stuff to justify their existence in my opinion, but the two unreleased albums seem bleak.

The case of The Cure is a headache of silly proportions. Their new album has been pretty much finished for a long time, but Robert keeps finding stuff to alter or whatever. And judging by the stuff they’ve been playing live, it’s likely their best album since Disintegration.

 

[Eldritch]

The case of The Cure is a headache of silly proportions. Their new album has been pretty much finished for a long time, but Robert keeps finding stuff to alter or whatever. And judging by the stuff they’ve been playing live, it’s likely their best album since Disintegration.

And it's not his only unreleased album. There is the companion piece to 4:13 Dream, which I understand has been scrapped. Plus he has been talking that there is another album in addition to Lost World waiting in the wings.

 

[Anonymous]

He shouldn't record anything with this current live band lineup! Not even a live album or video!
This is the weakest group of "musicians" Moz has ever had.. Only the drummer is worthy!
If this is the band Moz chooses to take into the studio then this ship really is sinking!

While I agree with your post even with an assembly of great musicians the songs we’ve been privy to from the two unreleased albums are poor. The time is right to put his feet up and enjoy the garden because not only is the output below the high standard he’s set, he’s also very unreliable and has no respect for those fans who have remained in situ for many years.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

And it's not his only unreleased album. There is the companion piece to 4:13 Dream, which I understand has been scrapped. Plus he has been talking that there is another album in addition to Lost World waiting in the wings.

Exactly. An altogether different handling of affairs compared to Morrissey’s, yet sort of equally frustrating.

 

[Amy]

I agree. I think an artist's job is to make art. The world is full of Morrissey's contemporaries who have pretty much given up on releasing new music: The Cure, Scritti Politti, Sisters of Mercy, Prefab Sprout, Human League... Tears For Fears, Psychedelic Furs and Soft Cell did release albums but about 20 years after the last one. If you don't move forward, you're just a tribute band to your younder self.

Quality control is of course sadly another thing. LIHS and Dog had enough good stuff to justify their existence in my opinion, but the two unreleased albums seem bleak.

But that's what all artists become in the end, whether they try to push forward or not. They have a moment in time. Bowie was a rare breed to be able to evolve so much and I can see how Nick Cave did as well, and some of Gregor's other examples. But Soft Cell? It's been 40 years, I forgot they even existed. Tears for Fears fell off the map in about 1990. Those artists had their day and to still be around, even touring the nostalgia circuit, is quite something.

Moz, well - I do believe he has one last great album yet to come and I was so excited for Bonfire when it was first announced. I loved some of the Dog songs like "Once I Saw The River Clean" and "...Hurling Days" because they showed self-reflection and maturity. So many of Morrissey's songs aren't like that, though. So often he just recycles the same themes over and over, until every song sounds like a diluted version of one you've heard before. He is really the ultimate 'eternal teenager' in terms of his themes and obsessions and I can't say I'm hungry for 20 more years of that.