proves its a grower ... thank god for moz .. anyone think of another more essential album of this year

once you give up your set of expectations and accept what it is. oh, how philosophical i am!

A few bitter people that post on here won't be pleased. Q's review was one of their lifelines.

It is initially a difficult album to accept, and althought i don't read Q anymore- its nice to see that they have the balls to change their minds.

I initially thought the album was excellent -- first listen to each song left me intrigued and excited by the new sounds and especially the excuisite production by Mr. Visconti. After having obsessively listened to ROTT over the month of April, I do concur with the above assessments that the album is a grower. I certainly upgrade it as well and would place it behind Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I in terms of overall song/production quality and consistancy. I think many of us had the opposite reaction to Quarry. While of course YATQ is a lovely album, hearing anything from His Greatness after so long a recess may have coloured our opinions of that album more favourably than in actuality. Believe me, I love YATQ but I for the most part thought the B-Sides were even better than the album itself. ("It's Hard To Walk" "Daddy's Voice" "Teenage Dad" "Munich Air" "Friday Mourning" "I Am Two People" "Slum Mums" and "The Public Image" could've replaced "America Is Not..." "Camden" "I'm Not Sorry" "How Can Anybody..." and "You Know I Couldn't Last.") Then again, I have perverse taste so perhaps none of you will agree with me. Of the proper album tracks on YATQ, I only rank "All The Lazy Dykes" "First Of The Gang" and "I Like You" as classic Moz tracks (For comparison, IMP 10 of Vauxhall's 11 songs can be considered 'classic Mos tracks' and nearly all of Bona Drag as well!). Anyway, my point is Ringleader of the Tormentors is loaded with gorgeous songs that will be Classic Moz songs, at least in the Mixtape world of Beau and they include (in current fave order, but subject to change...):
  "In The Future When All Is Well"
"The Father Who Must Be Killed"
"The Youngest Was The Most Loved"
(isn't the middle section of the album just glorious!)
"You Have Killed Me"
"On The Streets I Ran"
"I Just Want to see the Boy Happy"
The rest of the songs are all lovely too, they just haven't yet split from the pack to join the rank of "Classic" yet but as the above post suggests, each song does grow on the listener and overall ROTT will be a lasting work among many from our most inspiring and brilliant pop singer, Morrissey.

After all these years of bitter feelings between Moz and the venerable Q, they've actually upgraded ROTT's rating?

For a magazine to change anything's rating at a later date is a rare event.

Some respect for Q...

What a crock of shit. ROTT is Vile!

It isn't Q who have upgraded to 4 stars. It is the readers choise i.e. Reader Chris Gray Of Coventry who has given it 4 stars.

So well done Chris not Q.

Just remember that they are only (and I do mean ONLY) doing this because Moz is popular and his tour is a success at the moment. They originally gave the album a fairly mediocre review and presumed it would not be a success just as they did with Maladjusted (2 stars) and YATQ (2 stars) before. Unless you're Chris Martin or Bono the odds of you getting anywhere with Q are slim. They are the lowest common denominator as far as music rags go, except perhaps Kerrang!

Q have a history of this sort of thing, they give an album a poor review but then swiftly "rewrite" the review if that album happens to become a success against their predictions. They attempt to give the illusion they knew it was brilliant all along. They did this with Travis's The Man Who in the late nineties. The initial review awarded it 2 stars and then when Travis became music press darlings they band-wagon hopped and suddenly gave it 4 stars.

Am I the only one who sees this behaviour as opportunistic and deceptive?

I couldn't care less if Q upgraded ROTT to five stars and made it Album Of The Year, they would only be doing it for all the wrong reasons. I would have a great deal more respect for them if they stuck to their guns and honoured the old review rather than band-wagon jumping.

HYPOCRITES!

I'm having a Q bonfire tonight.

Nothing to do declining sales i dont supose.
they know Moz is great copy, they've seen the effect its had on NME since they swallowed their pride.

The album is on a par with any Smiths material. Smiths material is starting to sound a bit dated to me now. At the time it was relatively unusual to hear a jangly guitar on a record. Now it's quite common and it doesn't sound as special as it once did. This album is a lot more textured than any Smiths stuff. Morrissey has definitely grown in the last year or so. Yamaha