I've Heard This One Before

Of course, as a stalwart Morrissey fan, I bought Years of Refusal on its first week of release. Was I as excited about it as much as previous releases? No.

The fact that "That's How People Grow Up" and "All You Need Is Me" were tacked on less than a year after I purchased them on the confusing Greatest Hits makes no sense to me. Why oh why were they put on a new album?

With every Morrissey album, despite what non-fans will say, there are new things to learn about The Man. Unfortunately, I don't think I've learned anything new about Morrissey on Years of Refusal.

That is not to say I don't enjoy the album. Years of Refusal is a piece of fresh air compared to the intensely reflective, dark and meandering Ringleader of the Tormentors.


It's musically upbeat with "subtle Mexican sounds" and I'm finding the melodies linger on in the way great pop music is supposed to. My favorite tracks are the rocking "Black Cloud" and the dramatic "One Day Goodbye will be Farewell."

I wasn't a fan of lead single "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris," but I find myself humming it all week, so I suppose it does grab you when you least expect it.

Years of Refusal does have a stinker. "You Were Good In Your Time" sounds musically like "Ambitious Outsiders" on Maladjusted, and except for real strings, it sounds pretty dull and has the unfortunate title of being "the song I forget is on Years of Refusal" until it comes on.

The bizarre thing about Years of Refusal is that its rockier moments remind me of the sensitive arena rock that the band Gene was criticized for.

This might be the album Gene fans would love (and every Gene fan was a fan of Queen or The Smiths), but I'm not quite sure what that tells you about Morrissey.

Re-evaluate The Songs

Even though Morrissey's Greatest Hits album is fan exploitation of Bjorkian proportions, there are a few things I've enjoyed about its release.

The two new songs "That's How People Grow Up" and "All You Need is Me" are pretty good. The former is definitely a show stopper during his live sets. Something about the song sounds a bit forced, especially when you hear how natural "Everyday is Like Sunday" comes off. Still it's nice to hear how big, sweeping and dramatic the studio version becomes.

"All You Need is Me" sounds a lot like Bona Drag's "Disappointed," and there's a beautiful vocal melody bit around 2:34 when he sings "You don't like me, but you love me, either way you're wrong." It also sounds like he's double tracking his vocals on parts of this song. Is this the first time he's done that? I like it.

The packaging is very nice. I like the the little icons created to represent each song, which are then patterned throughout. It's printed on heavy card stock and I think it's one of the best Morrissey album packages.

Still, there's no doubt this collection is a complete act of pop star narcissism. The cover photo and photo of his bare ass on the album sleeve are at least 15 years old -- never mind that the majority of the songs are from his last two albums.

But you definitely get the feeling that he put this together, and that these are his personal greatest hits. These are the songs he's most proud of and that's probably what makes it interesting for any fan.

There's also an insert that says "Coming Soon. A very special Morrissey release" that will be made to order and not available in stores. What could this possible be? I hope it's not these new t-shirts.

Defacing Pictures of Famous People

Maximo Park will forever be the band that I was introduced to through my younger brother. I got A Certain Trigger two years ago for Christmas with the same enthusiasm one finds when receiving a sweater for a gift. I don't like albums as gifts unless someone has a very good idea that the music would interest me. Unfortunately, my younger brother is not one of those people. I'm not sure how, but sometime in the early 2000's, I kind of lost hope for modern British rock bands. But it was Christmas, and I love music, and I told my brother I'd certainly give it a listen.

And what a total surprise: A Certain Trigger ended up being one of my favorite records of 2005, an album of aggressive, melodic rock with sharp guitars, and a very charming singer named Paul Smith. Unabashedly British (no American accents, thank goodness), and wearing early Paul Weller on his sleeve without being derivative, Smith's direct, non sequitur phrases and expressive voice were the perfect match for music which veered from post-punk, to power pop and everything in between.

They have a new album, Our Earthly Pleasures, which has a more crisp-sounding production from Gil Norton (The Pixies, Doolittle) and more of what made A Certain Trigger, and the following b-sides collection, Missing Songs, so excellent.

"By The Monument", a jangly, radio-friendly rocker has become a regular on repeat for me. On the first record, Smith sang "I'll do graffiti if you sing to me in French," and on the new one he's "defacing pictures of famous people on the train" .. it's an entertaining notion for a classically British singer to be vandalizing buildings in London Town, a la Banksy.

It would be difficult to be Paul Smith's ex-love. He can be very direct and I would imagine the persons he's singing about know it's them. Unless he's just being very creative, and I haven't picked up no the poetic license thing.

The first two singles out now "Our Velocity" and "Books From Boxes" are powerful and good contrast between the types of songs that are on the new record. The music is energetic, aggressive, with a great rhythm section and Smith's confident singing. Everything about the new record is refreshing.

I haven't been this excited about a British band since Franz Ferdinand released their debut. Franz's follow-up was a massive let down, but Maximo Park show that there is a light for new British rock. Then again, "new rave" bands like the Klaxons might overshadow the British indie bands trying to come over from across the pond.

For the San Francisco folks, Maximo Park is playing at Popscene on July 26. I'm an idiot and didn't know about pre-sale tickets from their website, which are no longer available. I'm going to do my best to make it .. but why Popscene, and not Slim's or The Fillmore? I guess that's the question for every new band that you think is huge, or will be huge soon.