How do you rate Years Of Refusal, now?

[StatelyWayneManor]

loved it then and i love it now.

i just wish i hadn't played out THPGU and AYNIM when GH was released.

and BONA DRAG IS NOT AN ALBUM

well...if an album is a collection of songs, then...

Bona Drag > YOR

I could be wrong.

 

[Buzzetta]

I too, think of Bona Drag as an album.

 

[hilda ogden]

YOR....I love it. I listened to it yesterday while I was preparing for a big family get-together and I don't mind admitting, it totally got me through... It's grown on me so much. I don't tend to compare Morrissey albums (as in this one is better than that one) they all have their own individual merits - and those people who like to think they can say 'YOR is better / worse than ROTT' - why? is it not all a matter of personal taste???

 

[Maurice E]

I too, think of Bona Drag as an album.

Bona Drag is an album, but it's a compilation album, not a studio album, with selectively chosen songs using different musicians, different producers and different co-writers from a 3 year period, so it's a bit silly to compare it to a studio album like Vauxhall etc. It's like comparing Best of The Smiths to Meat is Murder.

 

[Buzzetta]

Bona Drag is an album, but it's a compilation album, not a studio album, with selectively chosen songs using different musicians, different producers and different co-writers from a 3 year period, so it's a bit silly to compare it to a studio album like Vauxhall etc. It's like comparing Best of The Smiths to Meat is Murder.

I thought it was more cohesive than the past <ahem> "effort."

 

[Vauxhall95]

I'll give you Southpaw Grammar, always has been an awesome album but... c'mon, you're telling me the lyrics to Dagenham Dave aren't just rubbish?
There's no song on YOR where the lyrics come even close to being as shit as Dagenham Dave. I also agree that YOR is a rubbish album. A good collection of songs but I want a little more from an album, some sort of coherence. You could sequence YOR in any order you want & it wouldn't hurt it.

Dagenham Dave was not lyrically ground breaking, nor Best Friend on a Payroll, which is why I found the original disappointing; however I appreciated the other songs on the album. On YOR, lyrically the whole thing just seems like Mozlite.

The unreleased songs on the new Southpaw remind the listener of a period of time when Morrissey had something to say and he said it with his usual aplomb.

 

[chrisarclark]

at first iwas really impressed- over time the weaker tracks hav taken away from the initial excitement.

YOR does house arguably Morrissey's two best tracks of this decade- SISMS and INYBA. it also has a few other tracks that are quite good, namely (or abbreviatedly) MLSOTR, ITMAAP, AYNIM, WLISTC and YWGIYT. ill even include THPGU in with these- strangely it's been a grower for me and sounds so much better in the context of the album.

BC and ODGWBF aren't terrible, but theyre not good. BC juste never sits right- it juste sounds silly. ODGWBF just isnt very good- it's a weak version of OTSIR.

the album really tails off at the end with SDH and especially IOBM- these songs are weak b-sides at best.

overal, YOR probably gets a 7/10 which is sort ofa shame, but then again it's still about as good as any of the last three albums so really you take away two absolute classics and you say good enough.

 

[Fuzzy]

Shall I post a full write-up? Oh, I guess I will! It's not like I have anything better to do tonight!

When I first heard the album I loved it! I think it's the first Morrissey album I actually LISTENED to, as a proper album, instead of just letting the songs introduce themselves as they shuffled up on my iPod (me being the poor, new fan that I am). And as a whole it's one of the ones I've gone out of my way to listen to again and again the most times, next to Kill Uncle and Your Arsenal.

Something Is Squeezing My Skull absolutely TERRIFIED me the first few times I heard it... something about the note Morrissey hits on "skull" sent shivers down my spine. The bad kind. Nearly gave me a freak-out when I had the song stuck in my head for an entire study hall... Well, I grew out of that eventually and it blew up into my favorite song. For a while, anyway. I've heard it so many times that it's kind of worn off and I don't get the "oh man, this song is the GREATEST" vibe that I used to get. Still one of my favorites on the album! But it got replaced. Black Cloud! I thought it was very boring when I first listened to it. Disappointed, almost, and I was outraged when I saw that picture announcing it as a single instead of any of the other tracks. (I didn't imagine that, right?) And now... it's my favorite on the album! I absolutely love the music to it.

Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed. By all means I SHOULD love this song, and I do like it (except the drums, which I'm in love with instead!), but for whatever reason it bores me most of the time. I skip it a lot when it comes up. Not always, though! So, my opinion never really changed. You Were Good In Your Time is the only other song I skip nowadays. Not when I'm listening to it as a whole - I do like it - but it's very boring to me (all the lack-of-singing at the end) and I've never gone out of my way to listen to it. I think it's beautiful, but it's just missing something. Drones on too long, or something of the sort!

I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris... good song, but kind of an 'average' good, it doesn't stand out to me. It's my 2-year-old sister's favorite song, and she forces me to put the music video on several times a day, so it's kind of got that 'overplayed' thing going on. Still do like it though. And When Last I Spoke To Carol... pretty good, but average good again! A lower average than Paris, though. Love the beginning, it makes me happy. Overall, it hasn't changed a lot. About in the lower-middle of my favorites list. Upper-middle, if we were comparing every song and not just the ones on this album.

All You Need Is Me is AWESOME (and always has been!), nobody is allowed to pick on this song in front of me. Okay, maybe I wouldn't mind it that much, but I do love it. If I had to pick a "favorite song of all time" from this album (instead of Black Cloud's "favorite of the moment") it would be this. It's on my "cheer up!" playlist and never fails to work, so something must be going right!

That's How People Grow Up... HATED it at first, would get fed up and skip over it. LOVE it now.

One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell. Now here's a song I really like, and I'll never be able to explain why! It's grown a bit, as far as liking it goes, in my eyes. I'm also shoving Sorry Doesn't Help in here, since it falls in the same category. Really, REALLY like, for no particular reason. Just blind attraction!

It's Not Your Birthday Anymore. Was unimpressed at the first few listenings on my terrible speakers, but after hearing it blasted in my ears through headphones I had to admit it was VERY awesome. I'm OK By Myself got the same awesome vibes, being my definite FAVORITE song for about a month, though like Birthday it's gone down a little! Both very good songs that I can appreciate, but I haven't been 'into' either of them for a while. I used to get PUMPED every time they shuffled on, and now it's more of an "oh, that's cool". I'm OK's "throw up in your bed" line still makes me oddly happy, which I suppose gives that song bonus points!

So, basically! Even though my feelings on individual songs have changed it's still overall totally one of my favorites. Good album! I'd give it anywhere between an 8.5 to a 9.5 depending on my mood - it's not PERFECT but I definitely dig it.

And now that I'm done boring this thread with my complete inability to describe music and why I like or dislike it, it's back to the usual for you all, I guess!

 

[brutalityobscene]

Bona Drag is an album, but it's a compilation album, not a studio album, with selectively chosen songs using different musicians, different producers and different co-writers from a 3 year period, so it's a bit silly to compare it to a studio album like Vauxhall etc. It's like comparing Best of The Smiths to Meat is Murder.

heh
Louder Than Bombs > Meat Is Murder
Years Of Refusal > Viva Hate

I'l always love Bona Drag though, it was the first Morrissey solo CD I bought.

 

[Dave]

at first iwas really impressed- over time the weaker tracks hav taken away from the initial excitement.

YOR does house arguably Morrissey's two best tracks of this decade- SISMS and INYBA. it also has a few other tracks that are quite good, namely (or abbreviatedly) MLSOTR, ITMAAP, AYNIM, WLISTC and YWGIYT. ill even include THPGU in with these- strangely it's been a grower for me and sounds so much better in the context of the album.

BC and ODGWBF aren't terrible, but theyre not good. BC juste never sits right- it juste sounds silly. ODGWBF just isnt very good- it's a weak version of OTSIR.

the album really tails off at the end with SDH and especially IOBM- these songs are weak b-sides at best.

overal, YOR probably gets a 7/10 which is sort ofa shame, but then again it's still about as good as any of the last three albums so really you take away two absolute classics and you say good enough.

go club a seal.

 

[brutalityobscene]

All these abbreviations confuse the hell out of me. It takes a lot longer to read them abbreviated, I start singing through everything in the back catalog to figure out what song it is!

 

[CrystalGeezer]

And now that I'm done boring this thread with my complete inability to describe music and why I like or dislike it, it's back to the usual for you all, I guess!

A sweet and honest review that doesn't sound like someone being a pseudo prick music critic with nothing to say is ten times more rewarding to read.

 

[Vicarinacoma]

Well, we've all been listening to the new album for quite a while, now...so maybe it's the right time to discuss...reconsider, rank it again among the others...write your opinions, or new opinions...I personally like it a lot, more the music than the lyrics, but I really enjoy it.

Some of it kicks ass like nothing else in Moz's solo cannon or his cannon in general which was a bit of a suprise really. I'd even go so far as to call some of it pop-metal!! I think all the fast songs can seem too much like it's trying too hard like the last one and Skull which is a bit of an emperors new clothes kinda thing.
Paris was nice but not much else.
The 3 more stylistic ones Carol, Mama and YGIYT are all classy.