Morrissey
Viva Hate

THE REVIEW

"The kind people Have a wonderful dream Margaret On The Guillotine Cause people like you Make me feel so tired When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? When will you die? And people like you Make me feel so old inside Please die And kind people Do not shelter this dream Make it real _Make the dream real Make the dream real Make it real Make the dream real Make it real"

A year after the glorious end of the "Smiths" project, the singer Morrissey releases his first album Viva Hate (1988), which is viscerally linked to the band’s previous record: same dreamy atmospheres, same sound structure, and, in fact, the same arrangements.
What’s missing are the happier and more refined insights of his fellow adventurer Marr, replaced in writing and production by Stephen Street, but overall the general mood doesn’t stray much from the Smiths' output.

Moz's caustic and sharp singing always surfaces, never hiding when it's time to plunge the blade into the wound (see the lyrics of "Margaret on a Guillotine" cited above which end with the iconic sound of the blade dropping on the scaffold!). The solo debut includes a couple of almost commercial singles like the tracks "Everyday Is Like Sunday" in a more quintessentially pop mold and "Suedehead", more rocking, and adds some other "less inflated" songs regarding the sound universe so far explored by our artist. Tracks like the lively "Bengali in Platform" or the symphonic "Angel, down we go together" grapple with violin and cello scores, or heart-wrenching songs like "Dial-a-cliché" make us perceive a Morrissey with still many arrows in his quiver, giving hope for a second career marked by renewed public and critical success. Which did happen, yes, but with mixed events, not all worthy of note and, indeed, some of questionable personal taste (like his declared sympathy for certain far-right English movements).

A nevertheless beautiful album for those who loved the Smiths and that keeps the umbilical cord with the group that gave him so much fortune and fame alive and pulsating.