Album Review :: Morrissey - World Peace Is None Of Your Business

Morrissey

World Peace Is None Of Your Business

July 14 2014 (Harvest)

8/10

Words: Alison Mack

It's been awhile since Manchester's most morose one put words to paper - that's discounting the 450 page autobiography of last year, of course - but the sage of the barbed tongue and controversy now returns with his first album in five years.

Although this tenth solo album may not be one to rank high in the Mastermind chosen subject of 'The Life And Times Of Morrissey, The Mancunian Bard', it nevertheless does attempt to deliver a collection that contains a diverse range of lyrical subject matter that hovers over the political, the observational and anecdotal; typically drizzled over with the sardonic and wryly amusing wording that the man has become synonymous with.

'The Bullfighter Dies' hardly needs explanation, given Morrissey's outspoken opinions on animal rights, and this is as brutal as he has ever been in its two minutes which rejoices at the survival of the bull at the expense of the fighter being gored to death. 'Staircase At The University' covers the rigors facing young people with exam time stress and suicide, while the anti-establishment album title track spike-tongues the police state and tasers to quiet the outspoken. 'I’m Not A Man' - a jaw-dropping eight minutes long - swipes at macho masculinity and espouses his vegetarian / environmental ethic into the bargain: 'I’d never kill or eat an animal/And I never would destroy this planet I’m on.' Elsewhere, both 'Kiss Me A Lot' and 'Smiler With A Knife' delve back into the old troubadour's romantic, yet often maudlin, side that first came to the fore during the 80s Smiths era.

It may have been partly the influence of producer Joe Chiccarelli, whose work has dabbled extensively in Latin rock, that WPINOYB also explores a wide palette of melodic textures incorporating not just the Latin rhythms in 'Earth Is The Loneliest Place' (“But you’re in the wrong place/and you’ve got the wrong face/And humans are not really very humane”) but an overtly more World music style instrumentally. 'Kick The Bride Down The Aisle' issues harmonium, organ, Spanish and electric guitars; Arabic oud on 'Istanbul', while 'Neal Cassady Drops Dead' (the Beat Generation poet) features a flamenco guitar solo in its midst - these sharing space with synthesizer, mellotron, woodwind, mariachi trumpet, and even a didgeridoo.

As a work of near on an hour in length and some 12 tracks, WPINOYB might well feel a little overlong for some, though undoubtedly will leave others longing for more - not to mention that unlikely to be seen Smiths reunion.