Viva Hate is magnificent, Vauxhall is sensational, but Quarry is simply Morrissey's high water mark as a complete album. Yes, there have been better songs, but not a better album. It's absolutely beautiful.
It was a make or break album and returned him to the top of the tree after years away. This is a man with the balls to cast the dice by opening with the eminently easy to deliberately misunderstand by the tabloids "America Is Not the World" and contains achingly wonderful songs such as "I Have Forgiven Jesus", "Come Back To Camden", "I'm Not Sorry", "The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores", "Let Me Kiss You", "I Like You" and I haven't even mentioned the first two singles either. Eight classics out of 12 is a great album by any standard known to humankind. Nick Cave has "The Boatman's Call", Morrissey has "You Are The Quarry". It's a thing of self reflective beauty unparalleled in his canon.
Without Quarry he'd be living in comfortable retirement in Rome, Paris or Tarporley, edging towards his Quentin Crisp years. A revisitation of the themes explored on Quarry after the disappointing Boom Bang-A-Bang of Ringleaders is to be welcomed like a old friend with a gramme of ketamine.