Do you think you've made the right decision this time?
One more addendum: Apparently, Morrissey played a big arena show in London just two weeks ago; ironically, the King of Cancellations went forward with this gig, against all logic and sound public-health advice! For what may well go down as one of the more infamous/dangerous concerts of all-time (Morrissey himself is now 60 and has had significant health troubles in recent years, not to mention the thousands of fans, staff, and crew members packed into the arena...), he opened with an uncomfortable a cappela joke, segueing not to "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" but, even more appropriately, "London," performed under a memed image of the You Are the Quarry cover, rechristened "You Are the Quarantined" with a masked Moz (video above). Then, after working through a slew of deep cuts, recent covers, and new-album material, plus a terrific "Half a Person" mixed in for good measure, he closed with one of his very best (and darkest) songs, a plague-inflected "Jack the Ripper": "Rats! Rats! Thousands! Thousands of rats!"
Rank
As a follow-up to my last post, I thought it might be a fun thought exercise (/time-killing distraction) to rank all Smiths plus Moz-solo albums together. The list below, though, excludes compilations, live albums, etc. –– only proper studio LPs –– though, admittedly, if counted, records like Hatful of Hollow, Louder than Bombs, Bona Drag, and, above all, Rank (up there with Live at the Apollo and Stop Making Sense as one of the greatest live albums ever!) would place highly. But there are just too many such items, official and less-than-official, with much overlap in their contents. (My songs list from a few years ago, however, helps to account for the many great tracks that aren't on any of these studio albums, though obviously it doesn't include anything from I Am a Dog on a Chain.)
01. The Queen Is Dead (1986)
02. Vauxhall and I (1994)
03. The Smiths (1984)
04. Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
05. Meat Is Murder (1985)
06. Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006)
07. Your Arsenal (1992)
08. Viva Hate (1988)
09. I Am Not a Dog on a Chain (2020)
10. You Are the Quarry (2004)
11. Southpaw Grammar (1995)
12. Years of Refusal (2009)
13. Kill Uncle (1991)
14. Maladjusted (1997)
15. Low in High School (2017)
16. World Peace Is None of Your Business (2014)
17. California Son (2019)
As a follow-up to my last post, I thought it might be a fun thought exercise (/time-killing distraction) to rank all Smiths plus Moz-solo albums together. The list below, though, excludes compilations, live albums, etc. –– only proper studio LPs –– though, admittedly, if counted, records like Hatful of Hollow, Louder than Bombs, Bona Drag, and, above all, Rank (up there with Live at the Apollo and Stop Making Sense as one of the greatest live albums ever!) would place highly. But there are just too many such items, official and less-than-official, with much overlap in their contents. (My songs list from a few years ago, however, helps to account for the many great tracks that aren't on any of these studio albums, though obviously it doesn't include anything from I Am a Dog on a Chain.)
01. The Queen Is Dead (1986)
02. Vauxhall and I (1994)
03. The Smiths (1984)
04. Strangeways, Here We Come (1987)
05. Meat Is Murder (1985)
06. Ringleader of the Tormentors (2006)
07. Your Arsenal (1992)
08. Viva Hate (1988)
09. I Am Not a Dog on a Chain (2020)
10. You Are the Quarry (2004)
11. Southpaw Grammar (1995)
12. Years of Refusal (2009)
13. Kill Uncle (1991)
14. Maladjusted (1997)
15. Low in High School (2017)
16. World Peace Is None of Your Business (2014)
17. California Son (2019)
Time Will Come (But It Hasn't Yet)
I Am Not a Dog on a Chain is the best Morrissey album since Ringleader of the Tormentors. It's not quite as front-to-back excellent as that one (his most underrated classic album), but, to my tastes, it's roughly on-par with You Are the Quarry, and better than the two between You Are the Quarry and Vauxhall and I (still, by a mile, his post-Smiths best) ––– all considered, far higher praise than I thought I'd ever be able to extend to a new Morrissey record at this point. This is just a stellar collection of songs -- crisply, often surprisingly produced, sung with maximum conviction and/or affectation, and full of instantly vintage Moz-isms: "Time will send you an invoice / And you pay with your strength and your legs and your sight and your voice," "In the garden by the graves / I can just about behave," "Why can't you bring figs all pulpy and moist? / Roasted in passion and salty in voice?," "Congratulations / You're still OK / I'd kiss your lips off / Any day," etc. etc.
Apart from a couple tracks I'm still on the fence about (but will probably come around on soon enough), everything here is either really good or truly great, especially "Once I Saw the River Clean," "My Hurling Days Are Done," "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?," "Love Is on Its Way Out," and "The Truth About Ruth." The first two, in particular, may well be up there with the very best of his post-Smiths catalogue: the former a vividly though impressionistically recalled memory piece harking back to his childhood, with shades of Seamus Heaney, Van Morrison, and (most obviously) the self-consciously Dickensian early stretch of Morrissey's own Autobiography, and musically quite unlike anything he's sung over before; the latter a tender, soul-baring ballad along the lines of "Now My Heart Is Full" and "We'll Let You Know," but delivered here as a contemplation of mortality and time's passage that isn't archly morbid but poignant and honest. In lesser hands (or even just in a lesser Moz song), a line like "mama and teddy bear / were the first full, firm spectrum of time" would come off as awkward and maudlin. This song's so great that it sounds downright Proustian.
I Am Not a Dog on a Chain is the best Morrissey album since Ringleader of the Tormentors. It's not quite as front-to-back excellent as that one (his most underrated classic album), but, to my tastes, it's roughly on-par with You Are the Quarry, and better than the two between You Are the Quarry and Vauxhall and I (still, by a mile, his post-Smiths best) ––– all considered, far higher praise than I thought I'd ever be able to extend to a new Morrissey record at this point. This is just a stellar collection of songs -- crisply, often surprisingly produced, sung with maximum conviction and/or affectation, and full of instantly vintage Moz-isms: "Time will send you an invoice / And you pay with your strength and your legs and your sight and your voice," "In the garden by the graves / I can just about behave," "Why can't you bring figs all pulpy and moist? / Roasted in passion and salty in voice?," "Congratulations / You're still OK / I'd kiss your lips off / Any day," etc. etc.
Apart from a couple tracks I'm still on the fence about (but will probably come around on soon enough), everything here is either really good or truly great, especially "Once I Saw the River Clean," "My Hurling Days Are Done," "Bobby, Don't You Think They Know?," "Love Is on Its Way Out," and "The Truth About Ruth." The first two, in particular, may well be up there with the very best of his post-Smiths catalogue: the former a vividly though impressionistically recalled memory piece harking back to his childhood, with shades of Seamus Heaney, Van Morrison, and (most obviously) the self-consciously Dickensian early stretch of Morrissey's own Autobiography, and musically quite unlike anything he's sung over before; the latter a tender, soul-baring ballad along the lines of "Now My Heart Is Full" and "We'll Let You Know," but delivered here as a contemplation of mortality and time's passage that isn't archly morbid but poignant and honest. In lesser hands (or even just in a lesser Moz song), a line like "mama and teddy bear / were the first full, firm spectrum of time" would come off as awkward and maudlin. This song's so great that it sounds downright Proustian.
If the Movie-Year Ended Right Now
Which, sadly, it might, give or take straight-to-streaming stuff...
01. Emma (de Wilde)
02. The Traitor (Bellocchio)
03. Onward (Scanlon)
04. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Becher/Phelan)
05. Sonic the Hedgehog (Fowler)
A few points:
1) I have an eleven-year-old son, who also saw all of these except for the Bellocchio film--technically, a 2019 release, but first screened here in January as part of our Italian Film Festival. Sadly then, but far more sadly now, The Traitor –– which is quite good but not top-tier Bellocchio –– was the only screening I made it to during that mini-festival.
2) He liked nos. 3–5, but thought Emma was just 'meh.' But, to be fair, he still thinks romance is gross, and was disappointed that there was some snuck into Cabin Boy, which we revisited the other day and which he otherwise thoroughly enjoyed--as well he should, because it's one of the all-time great film farces.
3) There is a non-zero chance that Sonic the Hedgehog (which actually isn't bad, and has maybe the best Jim Carrey performance since The Truman Show, if not The Cable Guy, but is certainly no masterpiece) will finish in my top ten, if not top five, for 2020, if the multiple, successive 'waves' of coronavirus prophesied by epidemiologists come to pass. Very strange times.
Which, sadly, it might, give or take straight-to-streaming stuff...
01. Emma (de Wilde)
02. The Traitor (Bellocchio)
03. Onward (Scanlon)
04. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Becher/Phelan)
05. Sonic the Hedgehog (Fowler)
A few points:
1) I have an eleven-year-old son, who also saw all of these except for the Bellocchio film--technically, a 2019 release, but first screened here in January as part of our Italian Film Festival. Sadly then, but far more sadly now, The Traitor –– which is quite good but not top-tier Bellocchio –– was the only screening I made it to during that mini-festival.
2) He liked nos. 3–5, but thought Emma was just 'meh.' But, to be fair, he still thinks romance is gross, and was disappointed that there was some snuck into Cabin Boy, which we revisited the other day and which he otherwise thoroughly enjoyed--as well he should, because it's one of the all-time great film farces.
3) There is a non-zero chance that Sonic the Hedgehog (which actually isn't bad, and has maybe the best Jim Carrey performance since The Truman Show, if not The Cable Guy, but is certainly no masterpiece) will finish in my top ten, if not top five, for 2020, if the multiple, successive 'waves' of coronavirus prophesied by epidemiologists come to pass. Very strange times.
Viva l'Italia
Certainly, things are anxious and perilous almost everywhere right now, but the scale of the tragedy in Italy is of a different order (at least for the time being). I've been thinking a lot during this time of our trip to Italy (around Lombardy and down to Rome) last summer, of the wonderful places we visited and the kind and generous people we met; some photos from those happier times below.
MILAN
BRESCIA
PAVIA
ROME
Certainly, things are anxious and perilous almost everywhere right now, but the scale of the tragedy in Italy is of a different order (at least for the time being). I've been thinking a lot during this time of our trip to Italy (around Lombardy and down to Rome) last summer, of the wonderful places we visited and the kind and generous people we met; some photos from those happier times below.
MILAN
BRESCIA
PAVIA
ROME
If I loved it less, I might be able to talk about it more
So, suffice it to say that Autumn de Wilde's Emma. is the first really good –– in fact, really, really good, borderline great –– movie of the year/decade, and an instant entry in the canon of top-tier Jane Austen adaptations, up there with Love and Friendship, Clueless, Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, and the BBC Pride and Prejudice. Everything here works perfectly: the performances, the casting, the period design, the pacing, the tone. That it's a debut feature is nothing short of astounding.
So, suffice it to say that Autumn de Wilde's Emma. is the first really good –– in fact, really, really good, borderline great –– movie of the year/decade, and an instant entry in the canon of top-tier Jane Austen adaptations, up there with Love and Friendship, Clueless, Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, and the BBC Pride and Prejudice. Everything here works perfectly: the performances, the casting, the period design, the pacing, the tone. That it's a debut feature is nothing short of astounding.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)