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Morrissey
If nothing else, Morrissey surely deserves a medal for the best song titles of all time; “Shoplifters of the World Unite”, “I Have Forgiven Jesus”, and “Hairdresser on Fire” represent only a small smattering of examples. And the lyrics? They’re even more incredible, although his are definitely an acquired taste. What do you make of a song with the following chorus;
“Don’t make fun of Daddy’s voice
because he can’t help it.
When he was a teenaged boy,
something got stuck in his throat”,
...especially when sung with a forceful effeminism?
Morrissey’s new pair of live releases proves that that he is still a vital performer. His recent material sounds great here. Old favorites from Morrissey’s days with the Smiths are liberally distributed throughout the CD and DVD too, and are also performed quite admirably, especially “How Soon is Now?” (from the CD only, for some unknown reason) and “There Is a Light that Never Goes Out”, with lyrics that still astound me for their forthright and darkly humorous airs;
“If a double-decker bus crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die,
And if a ten-truck kills the both off us,
To die by your side, the pleasure, the privilege is mine.”
I first heard those words on my car radio some time in the ‘80s, and the pure sentiment made me laugh back then. Remarkably, they still do. As an American, it’s hard to imagine the fan worship that surrounds Morrissey for that exact reason. He sports a wry detachment that cannot disguise the raw emotion underneath. The DVD contains ‘extra’ footage from a festival in Manchester where the audience sings along on every single word, including those written above.
Twenty years past his prime years with the Smiths, Morrissey now looks like somebody’s dicey uncle. Although it has been a verboten topic, his sexuality has always been an issue with his fans, although it is ultimately moot. Gay, straight, bisexual, ambisexual or asexual, Morrissey’s lyrics and companion melodies address individuality and self-obsession (which includes self-loathing) as their main concern. Both the new CD and the DVD convey this in a more adequate manner than any of his previous solo disks, and perhaps even more so than his work with the Smiths, although without the same aplomb. Besides writing good material, the Smiths were a band with plenty of charisma. Morrissey’s new group is incredibly efficient, but all of them combined cannot muster the appeal of Johnny Marr. Perhaps this is the reason that the CD manages to convey more excitement than the DVD. The new band plays admirably on both, but never gets past the role of well-rehearsed and extremely dynamic sidemen – mysterious friends of the dicey uncle. This leaves all of the attention to be focused squarely on Morrissey, and he doesn’t seem to mind at all. Over twenty years into his career, Morrissey still sounds great – and looks great, too, in a ‘dicey-uncle’ kind of way - and still writes material that holds up against his catalog of work.
A word of warning – one ‘extra’ on the DVD contains a graphic documentary film that intends to put you off of meat forever. Watch it, and you may never eat meat again.
Grade: 
 
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