"Low In High School" released (Nov. 17, 2017)

Low In High School is out now.

• Full tracklisting and details
• Reviews
• Related tagged articles - "low in high school info"

 

[countthree]

Are you drunk?

No. Why?

Do you have a problem with a person liking an album?

 

[firsttodie]

I LOVE this album. I'll love it even more when I've actually listened to it. Yes, I am blind but their bile makes me see. The more you tell me what is bad for me, the more I will defy you.

 

[notawoman]

It´s a privilege to hear his beautiful voice once again.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

“I bury the living” is a new low.

So much bile & ignorance in one song.

It boggles the mind.

It is absolutely dreadful. I was embarrassed for him, frankly. I think it outstrips Roy’s Keen as his worst ever. The one about protecting us from the Thames Valley Police is pretty dire too. I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but my local Odd Lot are mostly under 5ft 5” and carry all the gravitas and public confidence of a hippy social worker. As for the rest of the album, well, it isn’t as rotten to the core as World Peace. There are actually some tunes on this one. Funny what passes for good news these days.

Two days ago I listened to Vauxhall & I all the way through, and enjoyed it so much I did so again immediately afterwards. As we know it explores all the usual Morrissey themes of loneliness, alienation, unrequited love and requited love gone wrong, but it never preaches. Each track is a little vignette, and each flows into the other naturally. His last two albums have been trying instead to educate people rather than entertain, which is fine if the teacher is demonstrably correct.

Low In High School, like World Peace before, sees Morrissey, once more, not as wry social commentator but angry tubthumping evangelist. It doesn’t suit him. The songs The Queen Is Dead and Meat Is Murder do the same, but in clever, more subtle ways. The first amusingly, the second chillingly. That subtlety, that memorable turn of phrase have now gone, and I miss it.

I still maintain that perhaps one day when he’s finally shuffled off this mortal coil - hopefully many, many years from now - we might discover what happened to him circa 2011/12/13 that turned him from an irascible charmer with a glint in his eye into this pugnacious, out of touch arsehole. Whatever it was, be it health issues, relationship, finances, or all three plus other things, it effectively wrecked his career.

I’m sorry to bring up Bowie, but it seems apt taking into account their animosity to one another, and that there was a time when it was fair to say Morrissey was entitled to be mentioned in the same breath, but Bowie continually sought new collaborators. It was always recognisably Him, but surrounding himself with a pool of talent who would come running even on the off chance of working with the great man.

Morrissey had that opportunity but wasted it. Whether he still has that “power to charm” is arguable, but it is no-ones fault but his own. Others have part shares in the decline, but in the end it’s down to him.

I watch his rare television appearances these days and see Graham Norton or Jools Holland blow smoke up his arse and then being cheered to the rafters by the audience and I think “These people don’t know him at all,” confident in the knowledge he’d see every man jack of them lined up kneeling at a mass grave and shot in the neck.

Perhaps exploring the darker recesses of the human condition so extensively has finally got to him.

Will this be his swan song? Now the industry has changed I suspect he’ll only make music while he is healthy enough to tour it, as that’s where the money is now. There’s no point making an album in the hope it’ll sell enough to cover its production costs anymore.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

It´s a privilege to hear his beautiful voice once again.

His voice is great. No complaints there.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

I LOVE this album. I'll love it even more when I've actually listened to it.

Another contributing factor, I’m afraid.

 

[Anonymous]

Low In High School is out now.

• Full tracklisting and details
• Reviews
• Related tagged articles - "low in high school info"

First 5 songs are decent but.....
In your lap, Israel, I bury the living and protect from police might be the worst Moz songs ever , sounds like a bad SNL skit , over dramatic and cringeworthy, there are 2 billion political opinions out there, do we really need another? Lyrics are extremely laughable......critics weren’t far off at all.....

 

[Anonymous]

Bar the girl from tel aviv and the police one - Its a great album and very timely - some people will hate it and some morrissey fans will dislike it too - Morrissey doesnt do crowd pleasing and why should he - Its a world away from his last 3 albums in content and structure -

Highlights - Home, I wish you lonely, Israel and yes I bury the living - love them all - only mistake he should have had 'All the young people' as the first single - I dont love it - but i think it would have got him a high chart position as it fits a certain narrative right now

Its just a pleasure he is still producing work that might not be at his height but still a damn sight better than anything else out there right now...

You''ll miss me when i am gone!

 

[Anonymous]

It’s pretty good. So far I don’t like wwpuftp or ibtl. Who will just doesn’t have much there. The music starts off fine and I thought hey this isn’t bad but it didn’t go anywhere and the vocal was really lacking in melody with a minimal lyric. I didn’t have that many issues with the lyrics of ibtl. It’s not nessesarily untrue in what it says but more so only tells one side of being a soldier. It’s a morally conflicting existence which is why so many come back mentally damaged. That said it’s not a very good song either. Finally what happened to all the young people. It wasn’t as terrible as I guessed it would be but I don’t know what they were thinking. The backing music has been reduced to where almost nothing is going on. The live version which has been mentioned is far better. Songs still listenable though and maybe I’ll get used to it. Rest of the album I either liked or loved. The girl, in your lap and Israel all made me wish morrissey would do more piano songs as I thought he shined on these tracks. Spent the day I still really liked alone with the other two released songs but a little less so. They make better album tracks imo. Home is is a classic morrissey song in classic morrissey style and my love was a neat surprise with an opening line that is stuck in my head which is funny as it’s denouncjng propaganda. Finally wyoyl is pretty good. Great music and the vocal is catchy though the songs a bit slight

 

[Eric Hartman]

Just listened to Low In High School again, against better judgement.

Boy, what a stinker!

Morrissey is right about one thing: he has me running for the exit.

 

[Orson Swells]

Just listened to Low In High School again, against better judgement.

Boy, what a stinker!

I hope you managed to clean yourself up afterwards.

 

[Orson Swells]

I’m sorry to bring up Bowie, but it seems apt taking into account their animosity to one another, and that there was a time when it was fair to say Morrissey was entitled to be mentioned in the same breath, but Bowie continually sought new collaborators. It was always recognisably Him, but surrounding himself with a pool of talent who would come running even on the off chance of working with the great man.

I think there may be something in what you say, but speaking as someone who knows the Bowie oeuvre well, Morrissey has never produced an album as bad Bowie's in the mid-80s and early-90s. Even Kill Uncle - for me by far Morrissey's worst album - is better than those.

Which goes to show that when an artist does finally shuffle off upstairs it's the body of work that matters, not what it said about the later work - which usually tends towards the negative anyway.

These days - if you are lucky - I do think the very late work (60+) may get a more sympathetic ear (see Bowie, Cohen, Dylan) as nostalgia kicks in and old flaws are forgotten. And I think this could well happen to Morrissey if he sticks around long enough.

 

[Anonymous]

I ordered from mporium. Expected it would arrive by friday..but no.

thats why I decided I wouldn't order from amazon,said it would arrive on Tuesday,thing is iv got a huge amazon warehouse about 15 minutes away.

 

[marred]

Can I just say this. I don't want to exaggerate, but my initial impressions are that this may be the worst album I've heard by any music act, ever. I'm struggling to think of another album by any artist that left such a horrible aftertaste. In that sense, it's an achievement, to bring about that level of revulsion in a person. But lyrically and musically his career is dead, as is his legacy.

Even Charles Manson's pre-incarceration demos were less appalling than this album. There is no hope to the lyrics at all, and it's not that it's bleak in a way which could still have some merit, it's just turgid. It's artistically non-existent. There are more entertaining YouTube comments than this; teenage edgelords on 4chan have more insightful opinions to offer.

'Israel' is, lyrically, a career low-point, possibly the lowest. 'When You Open Your Legs' is listless, and the rest of the track listing reads like a list of the musically lifeless. 'All the Young People' is an insult. It really calls into question the whole notion of the 'career musician'. Especially those who achieved some level of financial success early on, and also the online media's continued coverage of such figures even after the quality of their recorded output has gone off the cliff edge. To be a career musician is no better than being a career politician.

Would you go and see Messi and Ronaldo play at 58 years old? Or Federer lugging himself around the tennis court while approaching 60? I don't see why this should be any different; increasingly so, with the evidence presented to us on this LP. And I'm not comparing Morrissey to Messi or Ronaldo either, he was never in that league, and after 'Low in High School' he'd be lucky to make the Accrington Stanley subs bench. He's the musical equivalent of Southampton's Ali Dia. Some public figures in certain fields of the arts and entertainment only improve with age, but Mr. Morrissey I'm sorry to say is not among them.

There are touring singer-songwriters playing in sparsely populated dive bars in Berlin tonight, and Amsterdam, barely making ends meet but with so much more to say than this malcontent sitting on his $30 million fortune and subjecting his listener base to half-arsed albums like this. Quarter-arsed. It's an embarrassment to everyone involved -- the listeners, the band, the record label, the production and mixing crews -- through no fault of their own in most cases.

But those within the inner circle who allowed this record to be made without once speaking out and questioning its direction, or its purpose for existing, are entirely complicit. They are cowards and enablers, and Korda Marshall has egg on his face. His cheeks should be burning so red that his dripping facial egg could find itself suddenly poached in seconds from the heat being emitted.

Typically I would give it a second listen to see if my opinions shift as the songs grow more familiar, but the thought of doing so with this particular album makes me feel nauseated. I'm afraid there are no words in the modern English language which could strongly enough express the utter contempt that I feel for what he has committed to record here. It is an attack, an aural and intellectual assault on the listener, nothing less.

Imagine how far-gone you'd have to be even to consider releasing something like this to the public. Edmund Kemper would have more sense than to release this album. With a severed head in one hand and LiHS in the other, he'd be more likely to bury the master tapes of LiHS in his back garden than the head, deeming this album to be the more incriminating and reputation-destroying of the two if found in his possession.

The only people who I could imagine loving this album are hardline Zionists, considering its themes, but even they'd have reasonable questions about its quality.

As fradulent as 'Punk' turned out to be in the end, at least it appeared to be successful - temporarily at least - in pushing out the hackneyed old guard and ushering in an exciting new wave who had something to convey in that moment which needed to be said and heard.
The only regrettable thing today is that there's not another wave of exasperated confrontational youths who'll come along and clear out the deadwood Morrisseys of this world who, like a bad case of the clap, just won't go away.

After his 35 year marathon career he's now hobbling toward the finish line...

While Morrissey is unlikely to trouble the charts with this clunker, the collapse of the music industry is partially responsible for his longevity. No longer can worn out old musicians just be swept aside in favour of the new, as the internet ensures their continued seat at the table. This is true even for somebody with Morrissey's 'comment history'.

Familiarity comes first for record companies as it's a safer bet for them to invest in than in the new and unusual which may not make any dent culturally and brings in poor returns.
This is where the loathsome idea of the 'career musician' rears its Moz-shaped head again.

The Morrissey who exists today would have been less likely to survive in the music business of 30 years ago if he behaved then as he does now when their monopoly was still immutable, and options were limitless, they could afford to dispense with an act like Morrissey whose harmful presence on their label would outweigh and diminish any marginal profits from average sales figures.

They could afford to cut him loose, especially if the sales were lagging far behind those of the true stars on the roster, and he was bringing more baggage and trouble than he's worth. He's signed today on name recognition alone, the artistry left the equation a long time ago.

Once upon a time he'd be locked up like the Marquis de Sade for releasing something so grotesquely inartistic for public consumption, because obviously you'd have to be completely barmy to put your name on such a thing. You don't see me putting my name to this post do you?

He would have been laughed at by children on every public square and had tomatoes chucked at him.

He'd also be lampooned in every colonial periodical informing the European diaspora of the goings-on in the Arts world. His name would be irrevocably linked with the likes of William McGonagle. His name would be a contemporaneous, and with time, historical punchline (and it is, and will be, but he would be laughed out of the public sphere entirely in his lifetime and wouldn't dare ever again show his face, not without a fake moustache and name change anyway. In modern times the name 'Morrissey' should be spoken of in the same breath as 'Tania Head'.)

Morrissey is the Andrew Dice Clay of the music world...

At least the works of the Marquis de Sade managed to achieve some sort of posthumous re-evaluation. This album isn't destined for a similarly generous fate , it will be confined to the dustbin of history forever, where it belongs. But in truth it never should have existed in the first place.

Some closing bullet-point observations.

• In 'Low in High School' Morrissey is the bully in the school bathrooms shoving your head into the toilet and stealing your lunch money (the lunch money being the price of the album, the toilet being the album itself).

• 'Low in High School' picks up where Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' left off but somehow with fewer sentiments of real value to contribute.

• While low in Morrissey's 'high school' the unsuspecting listener is grabbed and devoured, and finds that it's blacker than ever before almost as if they're trapped in the belly of the humpback whale being chased by gunships from Bergen. While neither Morrissey nor the whale 'give in', in the whale's case it's an act of defiance, whereas in Morrissey's it's a pathetic display that he refuses to just accept that the gig is well and truly up.

• 'Low in High School' should be investigated by human rights organisations for the cruel and unusual punishment it inflicts upon its listeners.

• On the school theme: in 'Low in High School' you watch the album's minutes and seconds slowly pass by -- 25:45...25:46...25:47...25:47 (??)..25:46(!!??) -- like all those late rainy afternoons sitting in math(...maths...LOL!) class, watching the clock, with time passing so slowly that it seems to stop, or for a split second the hand you're watching appears to edge slightly backwards.

• Listening to 'Low in High School' is the musical equivalent of receiving 'lines' to write as punishment in 'high school', in this instance writing out 'this must be punishment for something I did in a past life' repeatedly for 50 minutes (the album's length).

• Waking up on Christmas morning and finding 'Low in High School' in your stocking is only a slightly better prospect than waking up on Christmas morning and finding Santa Claus dead on your living room floor.

• On 'Low in High School' the aural 'high school' in question is Columbine.

• Referring back to Charles Manson from earlier, upon arriving home after a long day at work I'd rather pull into the driveway and find 'pig' written in blood on my front door than find a package waiting for me in my mailbox with 'Low in High School' contained inside it.

• "There are no words in the modern English language...." but I gave it a shot, however I'll stop here because I don't want to start exaggerating (re: my initial impressions) about how atrocious this album is.

• 'Low in High School' is aural syphilis!

Regards (sorry to everyone here who waited patiently for November 17th, some of you with anticipation, and all you got for your trouble and pain was this album which gives a glimpse into the mind of somebody deranged(?))
MOZAMBIGUOUS

P.S. While I write this I've been listening to the radio show 'Mystery Train' online which plays some great stuff. Not all is lost -- I needed to hear something like this to cleanse my soul and 'shake the disease' after my encounter with the oozing black bile of 'Low in High School'. The clouds are beginning to part again. 'Low in High School' contrives to frighten you. It wishes to pull you into its murky depths like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and be your 'friend' forever (forever). Morrissey's 'high school' is actually a cellar, and Morrissey as its principal takes off his mask to reveal a flickering Josef Fritzl-like face and a whole other cast of demonic characters on a kaleidoscopic daguerrotype underneath. He's not the man you thought he was. Avoid. Little lamb, run as fast as you can away from this terrible creation (never giving in), I beseech you, and don't look back.
TL;DR it's shite, although without 'Israel' and 'I Bury the Living' on the tracklist I might have permitted myself to go a touch easier on the old sod, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO!!

Why would anyone assume any of us are interested reading all of this?

 

[marred]

Well....back to Mountjoy.

Good bye friends, and be well.

Don't come back now...

 

[Anonymous]

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

First 5 songs are decent but.....
In your lap, Israel, I bury the living and protect from police might be the worst Moz songs ever , sounds like a bad SNL skit , over dramatic and cringeworthy, there are 2 billion political opinions out there, do we really need another? Lyrics are extremely laughable......critics weren’t far off at all.....

It isn’t so much his politics for me, as they remain a baffling, incoherent mess. It is that he is either actually in real life entirely driven by hate and bile, or has allowed that possibly false impression of him to fester. This is far beyond the socially awkward persona he once adopted, and/or actually felt, as many of us also did. This is often just plain nasty. We first saw it come to light in “Sorrow Will Come In The End” and surely many or most hoped that would be where it ended, but whereas on World Peace you got the odd whiff of sulphur on Low In High School the horns and tail are on several occasions actually visible.

Even something as seemingly throwaway as Spent... cannot escape it. It has a killer chorus in my opinion, but the rest reads like the diary of pre-revolutionary French Dauphin. How can he attack the monarchy and come up with that? It makes Her Majesty seem like Hilda Ogden in comparison.

On a scale of how the mighty have fallen we are firmly in Frog Chorus territory now. Low In High School isn’t as great a disaster as World Peace by any means, but this isn’t Morrissey. It’s close, but something isn’t quite right.

 

[Thewlis]

You mean Margaret on the Guillotine wasn’t nasty, or Hang the DJ for that matter.
Once again, as indeed with the Bowie analogy, you are talking nonsense.

 

[Johnny Barleycorn]

I think there may be something in what you say, but speaking as someone who knows the Bowie oeuvre well, Morrissey has never produced an album as bad Bowie's in the mid-80s and early-90s. Even Kill Uncle - for me by far Morrissey's worst album - is better than those.

Which goes to show that when an artist does finally shuffle off upstairs it's the body of work that matters, not what it said about the later work - which usually tends towards the negative anyway.

These days - if you are lucky - I do think the very late work (60+) may get a more sympathetic ear (see Bowie, Cohen, Dylan) as nostalgia kicks in and old flaws are forgotten. And I think this could well happen to Morrissey if he sticks around long enough.

Bowie was by no means immune from producing rotten material, particularly in the era you mention, but he then tore it all up and moved on. He could produce a classic number one single in collaboration with Queen, then produce a rather less than classic number one single with Mick Jagger. The point was he was always trying to change.

Is Morrissey today capable of a “Where Are We Now?” or “Lazarus”? If he is the evidence is lacking. I’m loathe to put the blame on Boz (because I like him) or Jesse or Gustavo, because everything Morrissey Inc. does is directed by the CEO himself, S. Morrissey, esq., and there have been many signs in recent years that standards have slipped. The inexplicable rise of Sam “Etsy” Raynor, the Grace Mugabe of the Morrissey Empire, being perhaps the the best example.

Yesterday I was discussing with the estimable Irregular Regular the Martin Rossiter album “The Defenestration Of St. Martin.” It’s packed to gunnels with pathos and wit and love and anger and beautiful music. It’s the last great Morrissey album Morrissey himself couldn’t now make.

As for your point about Bowie, Cohen and Dylan you are spot on. We delve into their past and skim past the dross. They are, literally in the case of two of them, legacy artists. But in the end aren’t we all?

 

[Anonymous]

More reviews from today’s papers:

Mirror: 2/5 “Gruesome”
The Times: 1/5
Daily Mail: 3/5
Daily Star: tits

I personally like the album but do think that The Times review (by Will Hodgkinson) is well-written.