Finally listened to 2004's You Are The Quarry. Great album!

i am a big fan of morrissey, and that album is the only one i truly disliked from start to finish. it never clicked with me at all.

It was surprisingly decent, but it's impossible to put that up against his older work. Taken on its own merit, without context or nostalgia, it's still an OK album.

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really, the last truly good solo albums that he did were back in the 90's - "vauxhall and I", and for whatever reason i liked the dark undertones of "maladjusted". since then, there have been some very good stuff mixed in, but those are the last two i liked all the way through.

his stuff with johnny marr and the smiths was phenomenal.

I like that record alot. Crashing Bores is epic, especially live. He dedicated that song to Hillary Clinton when I saw him in 10/07.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

That was my basic sentiment. Nothing near the level of Your Arsenal, but surprisingly enjoyable.

Edited because what I wrote made me seem like an asswipe.

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

Viva Hate is the only Morrissey album worth a damn, and I say this as a very avid Smiths fan. "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and "Suedehead" are as good as anything the Smiths did, and the rest of the album is very good as well. Beyond that, you have a few nice and memorable songs here and there, your "The More You Ignore Me..." or "Tomorrow" or "First of the Gang to Die," but it's so painfully evident that Johnny Marr isn't there anymore. The Morrissey/Marr partnership was one of the great ones.

I guess You Are The Quarry might be the second-best solo Moz, but what is that saying, really.

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Guess it depends on how you define "worth a damn".

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Just chillin' like Garret Quillin.

wow, i guess i really missed the bus on "quarry", i was totally disappointed in it. as curious hair alluded to, his best work was with the smiths, and thats what i usually go back to when i want to hear some morrissey anyway.

No one ever said his solo work was as great or greater than The Smiths.

But I really enjoyed You Are The Quarry and, hell, I even like his new album quite a bit. Something is Squeezing My Skull, It's Not Your Birthday Anymore, Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed, All You Need is Me...they're all worth a damn to me.

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One of the greatest songs ever, by one of the greatest bands ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naos7it_bl0

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Very good song, but probably doesn't even make my top 20 Smiths tunes. Let me see if I can come up with twenty.

EDIT: okay I got bored but my point is that as good as it is, so many of their songs are even more brilliant and that's why the Smiths are some of the all-time greats.

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Honestly sort of prefer his solo stuff over the Smiths, but I realize that tends to be a minority opinion in most cases.

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With Morrissey sans Marr, the feeling I get from the music is generally that it's only supposed to be a passive backdrop for Morrissey's lyrics, rather than a complementary or contrasting element full of its own ideas jockeying for attention. "This Charming Man" or "There Is A Light..." wouldn't have had the standout parts they did if they were written as solo Moz tunes, to take two examples. Even on a relatively strong solo song like "Tomorrow," there's not a lot of exciting stuff happening musically. Just really vanilla distorted guitars and bass.

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"there is a light" is one of my favorites, and it is because of the music, not the lyrics. i saw an interview with marr once, and he said that the music came way before the lyrics. morrissey would hear the song, and just come up with these crazy depressing lyrics such as "girlfriend in a coma" and "heaven knows im miserable now" and his voice and those depressing lyrics just melded perfectly together to make these beautiful songs. the band would be like "what the fuck is THAT?" but it was perfect so they flew with it. the smiths couldnt have worked without the sum of both of the parts: marrs melodies and morriseys lyrics. switch one of them and it wouldnt have been the same.

Don't forget that Andy Rourke came up with some awesome bass parts when he wasn't too smacked out to function. Not just the obvious stuff like "Pretty Girls Make Graves" or "Barbarism Begins At Home," but the ones that sort of fly under the radar.

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