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It is recent news that Morrissey has refused an "indecent proposal" worthy of the worst Abramovich to perform again with his old "teammates" at a Californian festival: there is talk of an offer of 5 million dollars, promptly refused by our hero, who recently stated he hasn't been in touch with Johnny Marr for 2 years.
No matter, because while the passing of time seems to show that the name and legend of the Smiths are further increasing even in the word-of-mouth of the new generations, also through the flourishing of bands like The Organ or Arctic Monkeys, dear old Moz demonstrates with this latest effort, "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" (a title, in his own words, extremely autobiographical) that his artistic journey is far from a depletion of inspiration.
Let’s be clear: there’s nothing that, from a compositional point of view, hasn’t already been hinted at in his previous solo works, with particular reference to that "You're The Quarry" which marked his commercial resurrection, although perhaps Tony Visconti's production has brought out a darker side from the sound of the individual tracks. The main change concerns more the atmosphere in which this record is soaked, through lyrics that explicitly show a specific moment of his private life, perfectly captured in every aspect with the beautiful setting of Rome as the ideal backdrop for the songs. Yes, because "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" testifies to Morrissey’s infatuation with Italy, after having observed that
"in the U.S.A. they are obese and in the U.K. they are depressed: here instead everyone, not just the young, wears the best clothes they can afford. Too bad for all those furs".
After selling his villa in Los Angeles, Moz stayed for some time in a hotel near Piazza del Popolo, where he found new sources of inspiration and new stimuli: the places in Rome helped the artist to develop a more personal and confidential guise, as amply demonstrated by the single “You Had Killed Me” in which he names the illustrious figures of Pasolini and his famous “Accattone”, of Luchino Visconti and of Anna Magnani, and which lives its most intense moment in the key verse “Piazza Cavour, what’s my life for?”. Despite these “engaged” premises, the record is not pretentious from the musical point of view, except perhaps for the ballad “Dear God, Please Help Me”, which even features the prestigious collaboration of Ennio Morricone, in which some have seen a sort of Morrissey “coming out” regarding his sexual identity, but which, according to his statement, actually deals with his turning towards religion after a walk near the Vatican (let’s not forget that his roots are still Irish!): regarding the much-discussed production, in the end Tony Visconti’s "grandiose" touch is noticeable only in marginal episodes like the fierce “The Father Who Must Be Killed”.
Moz revisits social themes in tracks like “I Will See You In Far Off Places” and “The Youngest Was The Most Loved” (introduced by the typical siren of Italian ambulances) which could easily be a Smiths piece, but for the rest we are always on the territory of a sort of self-analysis well evident for example in “In The Future When All’s Well” and in the probable new single “I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now”, or in “On The Streets I Ran”, where he resumes the parabola of his love-hate relationship with his hometown Manchester. These songs, in the end, do nothing but accompany the singer’s mood swings, always suspended between a deeply pessimistic and fatalistic view of the world and a clinging to an unspecified figure, a "you" that appears as "salvation" (in “To Me You Are A Work Of Art”:
“I see the world/it makes me vomit/but then I look at you and I know/somewhere there is someone who can calm me; To me you are a work of art/and I would give you my heart/that is, if I had one”),
suggesting, perhaps for the first time in "Morrisseyan" poetry, the fact that the humanity so much analyzed and mocked is in any case the only true meaning of our life, and in this case the lyrics of “Life Is A Pigsty” speak clearly
("Life, life is a pigsty/life is a pigsty/throughout my life I've kept changing gears/but I'm still the same as ever/Can you stop this pain?/even now in the final hour of my life/I'm falling in love again/again” ),
as well as the continuous references to God, even through verses showing an unsuspected message of altruistic compassion (“I Just Want To See The Boy Happy”) confirm all the symbolic meanings that this “confession in music” intends to convey.
Morrissey has stripped away all vanity and finally grants himself to the public with what in my opinion will be considered his most introspective and “human” album, an aspect sealed by the concluding “At Last I Am Born” where the lyrics
“At last I am born/historians take note/that at last I am born/I once chased affection denied/but now I just sit and yawn/because I am born/Once I thought I had numerous reasons to cry/and I did/but now no more/because I am born/at last I am born",
indicate how the cards have truly been laid out on the table. The gloomy, grumpy and decadent Morrissey has left behind the years of his personal “ataraxia” and has given himself to others, but above all to himself, and this may be due perhaps to a character that has softened over the years but certainly hasn’t been calmed (the interpretative keys when talking about him are necessarily numerous and ambiguously interpretable), but also, I would add, to a Rome that can proudly claim the role of the theater of the rebirth of an artist destined to be remembered as a classic with which several generations have grown up beyond any age and nationality. Another nice shot, Moz.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Dear God Please Help Me (05:51)
I am walking through Rome
With my heart on a string
Dear God, please help me
And I am so very tired
Of doing the right thing
Dear God, please help me
There are explosive kegs
Between my legs
Dear God, please help me
Will you follow and know
Know me more than you do
Track me down
And try to win me?
Then he motions to me
With his hand on my knee
Dear God, did this kind of thing happen to you?
Now I'm spreading your legs
With mine in-between
Dear God, if I could I would help you
And now I am walking through Rome
And there is no room to move
But the heart feels free
The heart feels free
The heart feels free
But the heart... feels free
The heart feels free
03 You Have Killed Me (03:08)
Pasolini is me
'Accattone' you'll be
I entered nothing and nothing entered me
'Til you came with the key
And you did your best but
As I live and breathe
You have killed me
You have killed me
Yes I walk around somehow
But you have killed me
You have killed me
Piazza Cavour, what's my life for?
Visconti is me
Magnani you'll never be
I entered nothing and nothing entered me
'Til you came with the key
And you did your best but
As I live and breathe
You have killed me
You have killed me
Yes, I walk around somehow
But you have killed me
You have killed me
Who am I that I come to be here...?
As I live and breathe
You have killed me
You have killed me
Yes I walk around somehow
But you have killed me
You have killed me
And there is no point saying this again
There is no point saying this again
But I forgive you, I forgive you
Always I do forgive you
05 In the Future When All's Well (03:54)
Armed with wealth and good health
The best of health
In the future when all’s well
I will lie down and be counted
In the future when all’s well
I thank you
I thank you with all of my heart
I thank you
I thank you with all of my heart
Lee, please stand up and defend me
In the future when all’s well
Confront what you are afraid of
In the future when all’s well
Every day I play a sad game called
In the future when all’s well
Living longer than I had intended
Something must have gone... right!
I thank you
I thank you with all of my heart
I thank you
I thank you with all of my heart
Please, please stand up and defend me
In the future when all’s well
Confront what you are afraid of
In the future when all’s well
Hold me closely if your will allows it
In the future when all’s well
Paired-off,
Pawed till I can barely stand it
The future is ended by a long, long sleep
The future is ended by a long, long sleep
The future is ended by a long sleep
08 I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now (04:14)
Warm lights from the grand houses blind me
Haves cannot stand Have-nots
And my love is under the ground
My one true love is under the ground
And I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s hero now
I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s hero now
They who should love me
Walk right through me
I am a ghost
And as far as I know I haven’t even died
And my love is under the ground
My one true love is under the ground
And I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s hero now
I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s hero now
(See as I... See as I... See as I...)
I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s lover now
I’ll never be
I’ll never be
I’ll never be anybody’s lover now
Things I’ve heard and I’ve seen
And I’ve felt and I’ve been
Tell me I’ll never be anybody’s lover now
It begins in the heart
And it hurts when it’s true
It only hurts because it’s true
10 To Me You Are a Work of Art (04:01)
I live a life
I feel the pain
To sing this song
To tell the tale
I wish I never even heard the song
I see the world
It makes me puke
But then I look at you and know
That somewhere there's a someone who can soothe me
To me you are a work of art
And I would give you my heart
That's if I had one
I see the world
It makes me puke
But then I look at you and know
That somewhere there's a someone who can soothe me
To me you are a work of art
And I would give you my heart
That's if I had one, had one
To me you are a work of art
And I would give you my heart
That's if I had one
11 I Just Want to See the Boy Happy (02:59)
Lord, these words I beg of you
As I kneel down at my bed
Because soon I will be dead
Let’s face it soon I will be dead
And I just want to
I want to see the boy happy
With some hope in his pale eyes
Is that too much to ask?
Before I die
I have one final dream
For my own life I don’t care anything
Lord these words I beg of you
As I kneel down at my bed
Let’s face it soon I will be dead
And I just want to
I want to see the boy happy
With his arms around his first love
Is that too much to ask?
Before I die
I have one final dream
For my own life I don’t care anything
And I just want to
I want to see this boy happy
Why is this such a bad thing?
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Other reviews
By kikujiro77
There’s the absolute perfection that only the (now) old Steven Patrick can distill in three minutes.
What can I say? You have killed me. Again.
By sylvian1982
The work is really bland with a rosary of useless songs photocopied one over the other.
In many cases, silence is golden, and rather than churning out series of records that add nothing, often taking away, it would be better to remain silent in anticipation of better times.
