Vauxhall and I is Overrated

I come on here occasionally just to look around really and I've seen so much praise for this album but I don't really get it.
I don't dislike Vauxhall and I, I think its a decent album, better than Kill Uncle and Maladjusted actually. Other than a couple of excellent tracks though the album bores me a little :straightface: does anybody else agree or is the album love by everybody apart from me?

...My favourite Morrissey album is probably Ringleader of the Torementors though is that a bad choice?... Perhaps I just have poor taste! :eek:

Anyway, that's all :)
 
I come on here occasionally just to look around really and I've seen so much praise for this album but I don't really get it.
I don't dislike Vauxhall and I, I think its a decent album, better than Kill Uncle and Maladjusted actually. Other than a couple of excellent tracks though the album bores me a little :straightface: does anybody else agree or is the album love by everybody apart from me?

...My favourite Morrissey album is probably Ringleader of the Torementors though is that a bad choice?... Perhaps I just have poor taste! :eek:

Anyway, that's all :)
Hey Themanwhowouldbeking(great film!), I agree totally. Not a terrible album but I do not understand why it stands out for many people. I think ringleader is my favourite aswell and I think the reason is that he got a big producer involved who may have had the clout to impose a bit of discipline on the normally self indulgent Moz.
 
It's loved. Not sure it is over-rated. I think it's easy to confuse loving the first track "Now My Heart is Full" - which is one of my all-time favourites - with loving the album.

I like the acoustic-ness of many of the songs, though of course it's by no means an 'acoustic' album. There's such a tremendous contrast of loud/quiet, light/shade that it's got a lot for everyone. Never a dull moment.
 
Vauxhall and I is Morrissey's finest album. Beautiful. I never tire of it. Now My Heart is Full is Morrissey's greatest song (and I'm including The Smiths' output), majestic, moving and funny. My only quibble (and it's a very minor one) is that The More You Ignore Me, a fantastic single, doesn't sit well with the rest of the record; I'd Love To would have been a better fit.

I remember HMV had it on rotation a week before it was released. I used to spend all my lunch hours pretending to browse, just listening to it, completely captivated.

I don't think a record, by any artist, has effected be quite so much since.
 
Favourite solo record.

Now My Heart Is Full: 10/10
Spring Heeled Jim: 8/10
Billy Budd: 5/10
Hold On To Your Friends: 7/10
More You Ignore Me: 4/10
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself: 7/10
I Am Hated For Loving: 5/10
Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning: 6/10
Used To Be A Sweet Boy: 9/10
The Lazy Sunbathers: 6/10
Speedway: 10/10

EDIT: I've just listened to The Lazy Sunbathers for the first time in aaages and I'd completely forgotten how wonderful the end of the song is just as it slides into Speedway. Tremendous.
 
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Favourite solo record.

Now My Heart Is Full: 10/10
Spring Heeled Jim: 8/10
Billy Budd: 5/10
Hold On To Your Friends: 7/10
More You Ignore Me: 4/10
Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself: 7/10
I Am Hated For Loving: 5/10
Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning: 6/10
Used To Be A Sweet Boy: 9/10
The Lazy Sunbathers: 6/10
Speedway: 10/10

EDIT: I've just listened to The Lazy Sunbathers for the first time in aaages and I'd completely forgotten how wonderful the end of the song is just as it slides into Speedway. Tremendous.[/QUOTE

Hey Fulham Road, Now that I think about it, with your track list and comments, maybe you're right, it is pretty good.
 
It's definitely a hard album to fault. I remember the day I bought the cassette. It blew me away on the very first listen.
 
It's a really great album. Top and tailed by two full-blown classics. Only Sweet Boy and Hated For Loving are slightly weaker than the rest. Can't understand the 4/10 for The More You Ignore Me... which is one of his finest solo singles, of course. Nor can I see that it's over-rated, because who rates it? I don't see it appearing on any best album lists anywhere. At the time of its release it stood head and shoulders above his previous solo albums and the great reviews it received reflected this. One of my very favourite Morrissey albums.
 
Without a shadow of a doubt his best solo record. Those of you who think otherwise are either too young or too stupid. Or maybe both x

From the opening majesty of Now My Heart Is Full through to Speedway there is not really one duff moment when listened to as a long-player... Personally I prefer side 2 (Tracks 6 to 11) as the tracks take a more autumnal and resigned aura. Just beautiful. Don't think Morrissey will ever top this album as a solo artist and I was fortunate enough to see the majority of these songs performed live. On 3 occasions on the Boxers tour.


In fact I'm going to listen to it now, one of my favourite albums ever
 
Hey Themanwhowouldbeking(great film!), I agree totally. Not a terrible album but I do not understand why it stands out for many people. I think ringleader is my favourite aswell and I think the reason is that he got a big producer involved who may have had the clout to impose a bit of discipline on the normally self indulgent Moz.

Steve Lillywhite was a big producer in 1994
 
I don't think we can say things like 'those of you who think otherwise are either too young or too stupid', because that suggests that the perceived quality of a song is objective rather than opinion. I do agree, though, that it is his greatest record, and I was extremely pleased to hear Speedway when I went to see him this year.
 
It's a personal favourite of mine.
It's my favourite album of his tied with Your Arsenal. It's hard to choose between them. I might learn more toward Your Arsenal in a dessert island sitation because of 'Seasick, yet still docked'.

Overrated is subjective. It's possible to listen to something too much and then get sick of it but usually we like something for a reason so I'd be hard pressed to say I overrated a Moz song even if I don't listen to it twenty times a day like I did when I was 20.
Even our own tastes change let own judge others taste. My twin sis and I share the same tastes but we rarely have the same favourite song for any artist we like.
 
Am I the only one who immediately skips 'Now My Heart Is Full'? I find it incredibly boring. But the rest of the album is great.
Better than Hatful of Hollow, The Queen Is Dead, Strangeways, Your Arsenal, Southpaw, Quarry and parts of Years of Refusal? No.
Better than everything on Ringleader? Very much so.
 
Without a shadow of a doubt his best solo record. Those of you who think otherwise are either too young or too stupid. Or maybe both x

From the opening majesty of Now My Heart Is Full through to Speedway there is not really one duff moment when listened to as a long-player... Personally I prefer side 2 (Tracks 6 to 11) as the tracks take a more autumnal and resigned aura. Just beautiful. Don't think Morrissey will ever top this album as a solo artist and I was fortunate enough to see the majority of these songs performed live. On 3 occasions on the Boxers tour.


In fact I'm going to listen to it now, one of my favourite albums ever


Hey Bluebird, just because someone doesnt like an album you like, it does not make them stupid. Although it is a pretty stupid thing to say.
 
It's an outstanding album but Used To Be A Sweet Boy is the sort of plodding nothingness that he's be churning out lately.

I'm dying for a re-master though. If for no other reason than them being able to turn up Billy Budd. It's too quiet!

I found some of the comments from Whyte/Boorer interesting that many of the songs on it were originally electric in the Your Arsenal style. It makes me wonder how Years Of Refusal would compare if that were made in a quieter style too.
 
It is beautiful, ethereal, touching. One of his most profound works.
 
It is beautiful, ethereal, touching. One of his most profound works.

Yes.

Am I the only one who immediately skips 'Now My Heart Is Full'?

Yes.

Vauxhall is an amazing but (slightly) flawed record. Most of the flaws lie with the producer; it is far too quiet and no, I do not mean too gentle, I mean it is too quiet.

Sunbathers is a solid song but feels too weak for the rest of the album. Lifeguard is a good track as well but it has that novelty feel to it. It's "the one where Morrissey whispers."

Trading those out for Black Eyed Susan and I'd Love To would have made it a perfect record. As such, I would say it is slightly overrated, but only when it is called his "masterpiece"...that accolade belongs to Southpaw Grammar, as far as I'm concerned.

In general, when called a perfect record...no, Vauxhall and I is not perfect. But it is very, very good and I'd say it deserves most of the praise it has garnered over the last 17 years.
 
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