LIHS is undoubtedly the oddest album Morrissey has ever done. The album has plenty of variety. It might be appreciated for the risks it takes, and for it’s uneasy coupling of sort-of-hits with polemical deep cuts.
A song like ‘Jacky’ stands out as a classic Morrissey track, with some pretty solid writing and one of those over-inflated, impossible to enunciate hooks that shouldn’t work but still ends up landing. ‘I Wish You Lonely’ is over cooked, yet somehow sonically captures the feelings of unease and unrest that the song is concerned with.
It’s a political album, but the politics are all over the place. The final track is intriguing and clearly has a lot on its mind. I find the mixing of the personal and the political here to be pretty bold. However, skewering a serious international matter in this way is either a bit glib or somewhat offensive, depending on how generous you feel. ‘I Bury the Living’ is another risk taking song. Both tracks are atmospheric, provocative and probably in need of a redraft.
There’s a lot that could be written about this LP. I prefer it to World Peace, as I think it is more spiky and musically dynamic. Morrissey is never boring - this is a consequence of his going against the grain, whether this in melody, politics or in musical accompaniment.
Let’s hope Bonfire is out soon, so that we can keep coming together to discuss the consistently strange and consistently compelling work that continues to arrive - we hope - in this later period in Morrissey’s artistic output.