A very brief review in amongst Mavis Staples & Sharon Jones.
Morrissey shares the rage on his new album, but allows a little light into his gloomy world, while Mavis Staples and the late, great Sharon Jones put love centre stage.
"Bigmouth strikes again this week, as Morrissey releases his first new album in three years. Low In High School is titled for all the disaffected teenagers who have long been his constituency and its forthright sleeve keeps up the anti-monarchy agitation. But there are more pressing global themes to address and Morrissey goes for the jugular even by his anti-authority standards with a brawny, bilious and bombastic takedown of abuse of power in its many forms, including police brutality in Venezuela, modern Middle Eastern dictatorships, oil wars and indeed all wars. The album is shot through with cutting rage but there is also a black humour in some of the stark musical and lyrical contrasts. The temperate tango backdrop transforms The Girl From Tel Aviv Who Wouldn’t Kneel into a satirical cabaret, while the tender torch ballad In Your Lap is among his more audacious juxtapositions of the personal and the political (“they tried to wash us clean off the map and I just want my face in your lap”). This ambivalent sense of simultaneously confronting and retreating from the political maelstrom crops up repeatedly, from Spent the Day In Bed to his sly Brexit comment that “everybody’s running to the exits” on Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up On Stage. But there is a flicker of hope among the gruesome lyrics of All The Young People Must Fall In Love which suggests that even a misanthrope like Mozzer appreciates that it is impossible to completely crush the human spirit."
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/c...orrissey-mavis-staples-sharon-jones-1-4611858
Bonus points to ANY journalist that refrains from using the Bigmouth... cliché.
Regards,
FWD.
Morrissey shares the rage on his new album, but allows a little light into his gloomy world, while Mavis Staples and the late, great Sharon Jones put love centre stage.
"Bigmouth strikes again this week, as Morrissey releases his first new album in three years. Low In High School is titled for all the disaffected teenagers who have long been his constituency and its forthright sleeve keeps up the anti-monarchy agitation. But there are more pressing global themes to address and Morrissey goes for the jugular even by his anti-authority standards with a brawny, bilious and bombastic takedown of abuse of power in its many forms, including police brutality in Venezuela, modern Middle Eastern dictatorships, oil wars and indeed all wars. The album is shot through with cutting rage but there is also a black humour in some of the stark musical and lyrical contrasts. The temperate tango backdrop transforms The Girl From Tel Aviv Who Wouldn’t Kneel into a satirical cabaret, while the tender torch ballad In Your Lap is among his more audacious juxtapositions of the personal and the political (“they tried to wash us clean off the map and I just want my face in your lap”). This ambivalent sense of simultaneously confronting and retreating from the political maelstrom crops up repeatedly, from Spent the Day In Bed to his sly Brexit comment that “everybody’s running to the exits” on Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up On Stage. But there is a flicker of hope among the gruesome lyrics of All The Young People Must Fall In Love which suggests that even a misanthrope like Mozzer appreciates that it is impossible to completely crush the human spirit."
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/c...orrissey-mavis-staples-sharon-jones-1-4611858
Bonus points to ANY journalist that refrains from using the Bigmouth... cliché.
Regards,
FWD.