Is "World Peace…" Morrissey's most divisive album ever?

King Leer

Leering since '97
Been trying to keep up with all the reviews for World Peace… and it seems to have the widest range of scores ever for a Morrissey solo album, averaging out to a decent 71 on Metacritic. Is there another album in his discography that even comes close to simultaneously garnering so much praise and scorn? Would love to hear the Man's comments on that.
I think divisiveness inherently shows the relevance of an artist.
 
'Southpaw Grammar' seems to be another very divisive ones. Most people either seem to see it as an indulgent mess and one of his weakest albums, or as progressive ass kicking brilliance, and amongst his best. I'm in the latter camp on that one. :)
 
Good question, King, and I think it probably is.
The reason, however, seems pretty clear to me.
The music is a huge improvement over anything he's put out for years. The different styles, the arrangements, the melodies - brilliant stuff.
But the lyrics are arguably his worst. They're not all awful - personally I like the words to Earth, Istanbul, Smiler, Mountjoy, and a couple more.
The song, World Peace, encapsulates the problem most clearly. It's a lovely shimmering piece of music - one of Boz's finest ever compositions. But the words are just flipping awful. Foolish, patronising, deluded, just plain stupid, really.
And herein lies the explanation behind the differing reviews. Journalists who focus on the words are gonna give the album a pasting - those who are more interested in the music and the singing are more likely to heap praise. Simples!
 
Agharta, you have been one of, if not THE main disliker of the album since before it was released.
You are in a certain crew that gave it a quick play & have been going on & on about how crap Morrissey, his musicians & the album is since.

You don't like it, thats your opinion to which you are entitled, but how many times can you type the same post in various ways?

Go away you boring hag.
 
I think it’s definitely up there as one of his most divisive albums. I thought the same thing about Years Of Refusal though, and now it seems that time has been pretty kind to it. I have mentioned it in other posts but I’m wondering if the same will happen to WPINOYB as well.
 
Agharta, you have been one of, if not THE main disliker of the album since before it was released.
You are in a certain crew that gave it a quick play & have been going on & on about how crap Morrissey, his musicians & the album is since.

You don't like it, thats your opinion to which you are entitled, but how many times can you type the same post in various ways?
.

Quite a few more.

p.s. the album is indelibly crap, this is true. But I never said Morrissey or his musicians were.

p.p.s the reason I disliked it before it was released is because I had heard it. Just sayin'.
 
Some interesting revisionist history happening here... :rolleyes:

But ANYWAY, yes, I do this this album is very divisive, both among music critics and fans. I definitely think that's in part a divisiveness over Morrissey himself, and his behavior (or at least his perceived behavior) over the past few years. He is more polarizing than ever. The other reason is that this album is quite a departure for him in many ways. I can draw parallels with older work on a song-by-song basis because he's still Morrissey, but on the whole I can't compare the tone of this album to anything else he's done. The prevalence of flamenco guitar in particular really seems to put people on one side of the fence or the other!
 
Quite a few more.

p.s. the album is indelibly crap, this is true. But I never said Morrissey or his musicians were.

p.p.s the reason I disliked it before it was released is because I had heard it. Just sayin'.

One of the most annoying sign offs of all time.
 
At risk of stating the obvious, I meant most divisive in terms of reviews in the media.
When it comes to fans it's much messier. It's really only a Vauxhall hater that would just be completely ignored. Even a third or half of Arsenal is up for divisiveness. Beyond those two albums it's open season.

But with "professional" journalists this one seems to be more over the map than any other. Even in terms of the lyrics.
The music and production seem to be generally praised, though.
I knew the current lineup had better songs in them (and Boz could return to form) -- I just thought it would take a lot more competition or knowing it was the last Moz album ever to push them.
Hmm.
 
Some interesting revisionist history happening here... :rolleyes:

But ANYWAY, yes, I do this this album is very divisive, both among music critics and fans. I definitely think that's in part a divisiveness over Morrissey himself, and his behavior (or at least his perceived behavior) over the past few years. He is more polarizing than ever. The other reason is that this album is quite a departure for him in many ways. I can draw parallels with older work on a song-by-song basis because he's still Morrissey, but on the whole I can't compare the tone of this album to anything else he's done. The prevalence of flamenco guitar in particular really seems to put people on one side of the fence or the other!

Definitely. I'm on the side of those who love it. I think the last minute of Staircase at the university is the highlight of the album.
 
Not sure about most divisive, southpaw would claim that prize but it's definatley the worst, utter shit. Those giving it the same star rating as Vauxhall, Arsenal & Viva Hate musnt know shit from clay and its embarrassing to defend such a poor album just because its morrisseys. Got every morrissey record dating back to 88' but scraping the barrell with the last few, 10" suedehead mael mix, 7&12" satellite of love, YA reissue, V&I reissue, the most pointless 10" in history the 4 track WP and now the double LP, all shocking releases and bought for the love of moz. Still geared up for the orange vinyl, which is one positive i will take from this abortion of an album.
 
Not sure about most divisive, southpaw would claim that prize but it's definatley the worst, utter shit. Those giving it the same star rating as Vauxhall, Arsenal & Viva Hate musnt know shit from clay and its embarrassing to defend such a poor album just because its morrisseys. Got every morrissey record dating back to 88' but scraping the barrell with the last few, 10" suedehead mael mix, 7&12" satellite of love, YA reissue, V&I reissue, the most pointless 10" in history the 4 track WP and now the double LP, all shocking releases and bought for the love of moz. Still geared up for the orange vinyl, which is one positive i will take from this abortion of an album.

Okay enough of this beating around the bush. Tell us what you really think :)
 
"But, as with wine, you will know when you first try it whether you like it as a thing or not from the effect it will have on you. There are forms of it to appeal to all tastes and if you do not like it, none of it, nor, as a whole, while not caring for details, then it is not for you. It would be pleasant of course for those who do like it if those who do not would not feel that they had to go to war against it or give money to try to suppress it, since it offends them or does not please them, but that is too much to expect and anything capable of arousing passion in its favor will surely raise as much passion against it." ~E. Hemingway
 
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