Official reviews of 'Spent the Day in Bed'

Stephen Street (in a tweet)
Got to say, I really like the new #morrissey single! Good work all involved

Stuart Maconie 6 Music
(comment after playing the song on his show)
“I absolutely loved that. It’s becoming, you know, hugely unfashionable to say you like anything that Moz does but that is great. “

Daily Telegraph – “Morrissey's new single, Spent The Day in Bed, shows we should be excited about his next album. Spent The Day in Bed was unveiled this morning on BBC 6 Music. It boasted a vintage Morrissey construction in its flowing, easygoing melody over an urgent rhythm section, although with a fresh energy to the arrangement. There was no sense of reaching back towards the sparkling indie guitars of The Smiths. Instead, this single was constructed around a fast, almost Baroque keyboard line and pyschedelic rhythm guitar, with Morrissey casually bossing the vocal line.

Morrissey recalled Philip Larkin through tongue-in-cheek attention to the humdrum details of ordinary lives. But the iconic singer revelled in the joys of taking a sneaky duvet day and used it as a springboard to address a bigger point with a chorus that advises all his “friends” to switch off from our world of incessant news: “The news contrives to frighten you / To make you feel small and alone / To make you feel that your mind isn't your own.”

All of this is delivered with typical bluff northern charm, carrying on to a coda constructed from recurring Morrissey motifs evoking the dreary commuter existence you might escape by staying under the covers: “no bus, no boss, no rain, no train.” It is a delightful and funny, philosophical little gem that bodes well for his return.

Morrissey has been recording in Ennio Morricone's studio in Rome Last week, at the Mercury Awards, I ran into a record executive who helped set it up, and he was raving about it. He called it the best solo album of Morrissey's career. That has got to be worth getting out of bed for.”
www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/morrisseys-new-single-spent-day-bed-shows-should-excited-next/

The Times – “The new single is funny, maudlin, slightly ridiculous and has the kind of rebellious outsider spirit that made us fall for him in the first place.

Well this is a surprise. Morrissey has spent a decade doing everything he could to denigrate his once impeccable legacy: using much of his autobiography to settle petty scores with a high-court judge; writing an unreadably pretentious novel; and burning his bridges at one record company after another. After that, nobody could reasonably expect him to come back with a half-decent song. Yet here he is with Spent the Day in Bed, which is funny, maudlin, slightly ridiculous and imbued with the kind of rebellious outsider spirit that made us fall for him in the first place. It has a pretty good tune too.

Beginning with a delicate, almost baroque electronic piano and a handful of squeaky retro-futuristic synthesizer bleeps, Morrissey makes the case for…” (rest of review behind the paywall)
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pop-review-morrissey-spent-the-day-in-bed-dvxdfldhj

The Guardian - Backed by chirpy organ and strummed guitars, it’s a typically existentialist, Eeyoreish song from the former Smiths singer, in which he rejects the “emasculation” and “castration” of the rat race, instead recommending that you stay in bed and ignore the news, “because the news contrives to frighten you / to make you feel small and alone / to make you feel that your mind isn’t your own”.
www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/19/morrissey-new-single-spent-the-day-in-bed

Please add any more to this thread.
 
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Your hint did it, more then the "guaranteed number" one Calamine gave. :thumb:
Guaranteed number ones don't exist as Boz should know.

In my defense I have to say it should have been ITMAAP and not TMAAM. :)

I NEED to know, what's wrong with " Paris "? If it is about abbreviations?

I am not in favour of the abbreviations consisting of the album or song titles by using the first character in capitals.
Or it should be in a puzzle or cryptogram.

The positive side is you start searching in the Smiths and Moz catalogue and the song titles immediately trigger impressions and impulses to listen to them again, but it is a bit distracting as you forget about the songtitle you were looking for. :squiffy:

I prefer the system used by Moz and band in the setlists they use during concerts.

So, for instance Skull and not SISMS.
Paris and not ITMAAP.

This should be in the TOS. IMHO. :p
Make life a bit easier for new fans as well, otherwise they will spend the day in bed. :rolleyes:

Just make up a way to remember it. ITMAAP looks like IT MAP. It you go to Paris you will need a MAP. Simple.

guaranteed number one
 
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Do you mean the album we haven't heard yet?
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.

So yeah - I am really hoping that the album has better tracks than this.
 
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.
So yeah - I am really hoping that the album has better tracks than this.

Boy Racer wasn't first off Southpaw - it was Dagenham Dave, a truly dismal song.
 
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.

So yeah - I am really hoping that the album has better tracks than this.

Well no, it's traditional to release the most commercial songs - not necessarily the strongest.

So while Suedehead, The More You Ignore Me, Irish Blood English Heart etc. might be considered contenders for the strongest songs on their respective albums...

I doubt whether many would seriously argue that the same could be said for the likes of We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful, Dagenham Dave, Alma Matters etc.

The same obviously goes for WPINOTB.
 
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.

I would say the new song is better than some of those, actually. It's great.

And, for me, none of those singles you mention are the strongest tracks off their subsequent albums. Obviously these things are entirely subjective, but personally I prefer Sunday/Maudlin Street to Suedehead, Mute Witness to Our Frank, most of Your Arsenal to Successful, Speedway/Now My Heart/Why Don't You Find Out... to The More You Ignore Me, Trouble Loves Me/Maladjusted to Alma, First of the Gang/Jesus/Camden to Irish Blood, Pigsty/I'll Never Be to You Have Killed Me...

(As noted above, Dagenham Dave was the lead track from Southpaw Grammar and it was arguably the weakest song on it.)
 
Morrissey singles are a strange species. For me, this new song is his best single since "Hold on to your friends"!
 
Thanks for that - very interesting take. A.W. gets all kinds of stick for his film reviews (especially as of late), but he gets a lot of nutrition out of Spent the Day...

He also was probably the only pro journo (and maybe journo period) to write at length on lesser-known Moz B-side Christian Dior. Love that song btw.

Agreed on Christian Dior. I love that song
 
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.

So yeah - I am really hoping that the album has better tracks than this.
That may be your opinion and that's fine, but what I am aware of is that bands usually release the more catchy and easily digestible songs as singles, not necessarily the strongest songs from their albums.

I think Morrissey underestimates his audience when choosing singles. If I had my way Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself would've been a single from Vauxhall And I. Trouble Loves Me from Maladjusted. Reader Meet Author from Southpaw Grammar. I Like You from You Are The Quarry. Black Cloud from Years Of Refusal.

All those singles you mentioned are great songs, but there are far stronger tracks on those albums. Singles are adverts for albums to catch the type of fan that usually wouldn't bother with the rest of the album. The day I judge an artist by their singles will never come.

I take this single for what it is and I like it a lot and I know there will be even better material deeper within. Singles are great but they are just the surface.
 
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If I had my way Black Cloud from Years Of Refusal.
No, this song was a filler on YOR: repeating several times in a row the title of a song in a chorus doesn't make a good chorus. The intro is ugly.

One day good bye will be farewell had the potential of being a single: but it was reminiscent of ''Your arsenal" - era and "Irish Blood..." which is probably why it didn't make it.
 
I take it you are aware that it's traditional for bands/artists to release the strongest song from an album as the lead single, not the worst? Is 'Spent the Day in Bed' as good a song as: 'Suedehead', 'Our Frank', 'We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful', 'The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get', 'The Boy Racer', 'Alma Matters', Irish Blood English Heart', or 'You Have Killed Me'? I'd argue they are all A-list Morrissey songs, and this one isn't - it sounds more like a pleasant but disposable B side.

So yeah - I am really hoping that the album has better tracks than this.

Nah, Morrissey's tradition it's to release the worst of his songs as lead singles
 
By the way I STILL dig the new song despite disapproval from the Unholy Trinity of Uncle Skinny, Brummie & Benny. I don't know how I manage this but Moz triumphs! The good guys win!
 
Nah, Morrissey's tradition it's to release the worst of his songs as lead singles

Because, as he once stated, he hasn't got a clue as to which songs should be singles. And nobody has.
That was revealing, IMHO.
And it should be that way cause if everybody has a clue, Moz included, it would become a very boring and predictable enterprise, wouldn't it?
Now they still have to make an effort and there is some adventure.
Maybe? ;)
 
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