Excuse me please, Emil, but recently you made the comment:
Years of Refusal is the worst thing Morrissey has done. It's incomprehensible how someone can rate it as his second best. World Peace is so much better.
Now, on this basis, I'd say that accusing me of not being 'rational' and 'correct' may be rather a long stretch, don't you?
Here's the thing - Years Of Refusal has great thematic identity and coherence, structured intelligently with songs that work in and of themselves as well as call across to each other. It's a satisfying piece of art that succeeds on all levels - the production and performances work to give the impression the band and singer are actually in the same room together, playing off each other with a refreshing lack of artifice. Morrissey sings like a man possessed, with absolute vocal control throughout. He also manages to fit his words into the songs in a way that complements the music, rather than jarring or appearing to be pouring three pints of lyrics into one glass. As a whole, it is my favourite solo album after Viva Hate. That might sound preposterous to you, but it works as an album, and while this is difficult to delineate exactly, it reminds me of kind of Hatful of Hollow, 25 years on. This is a 'dark' album, full of the thrashy storms of mental illness and ageing - but it doesn't crumble into self-pity, rather it tempers its wallowing with a tongue pressed lightly against cheek. It is both simultaneously innocently childish and parentally wise. I find the cover therefore quite apt.
World Peace, on the other hand, has a picture of Morrissey with a pen sitting in front of a dog on the front. It is barking on more than one level, sounding like the confused, random and rushed work of a singer and band not even on the same book, let alone page. Its as if Morrissey tossed off some cranky first draft mash ups of Daily Mail meets PETA soapbox rants into a kitchen sink of swirly bizarre noises and then poured the resulting slop into a CD sized pot and figured "f*** it, that'll do".