Product Description

The former Smiths frontman's seventh solo album follows on from 1997's 'Malajusted'. Lyric-wise, Morrissey is as socio-political as ever with titles such as 'America Is Not The World' and 'I Have Forgiven Jesus', but the album is balanced with lovelorn tracks such as 'I Like You' and 'Let Me Kiss You'. The single, 'Irish Blood English Heart', is also included.

Track Listing

1. America Is Not The World
2. Irish Blood, English Heart
3. I Have Forgiven Jesus
4. Come Back To Camden
5. I'm Not Sorry
6. The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
7. How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
8. The First Of The Gang To Die
9. Let Me Kiss You
10. All The Lazy Dykes
11. I Like You
12. You Know I Couldn't Last

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1467 in Music
• Released on: 2004-05-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 47 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's been a long while coming and the world is a very different place, but there's something remarkably timely about You Are the Quarry, the album that marks the return of Manchester's most famous miserablist to the pop arena. And be assured, this biting, lyrically ambiguous collection of songs is pop through and through, albeit pop with its heart on hold and its loins full of unrequited lust.

"America" is typical Morrissey vitriol, a big, contentious opener that slams you in the jaw with a critical knuckleduster lyric. It's strange though that somebody now resident in LA should take a swipe at a country "where a president is never black, female or gay". Even odder, for this normally purist rocker, is the suggestion of a breakbeat (think George Michael rather than George Clinton) and almost--gasp--funky guitars. Elsewhere, bass and drums are pushed upfront in that swaggering Moz style, although "I Have Forgiven Jesus" is welcomingly reflective and nostalgic. "The World is Full of Crashing Bores" is another highlight and a caustic comment on the curse of Pop Idol culture, but the best track here, "You Know I Couldn't Last", is what the people really want. Both melancholy and euphoric in equal measure, it's a fine reminder of why hit-and-miss Morrissey is still so revered. Welcome back misery guts; all is forgiven. --Paul Tierney

Customer Reviews

'A Bullet in the Gullet'
Unfortunately, it isn't saying much that 'You Are the Quarry' is Morrissey's best solo venture, and it'll come as no surprise that the best songs on it are the ones which sound most like the Smiths.
It has much the same failings as 'Southpaw Grammar', ie; Moz resorting to sub-rock MOR, which is unforgivably lazy as well as artistically unchallenging. It feels strained and contrived, a dash of strings here, a twiddle of synth there, a sporadic Mozzer exclamation just enough to save it all from inevitably going down the pan.
But, and it's big but, he has a handful of songs here, which out of the complete blue, partially resurrect him as a protuberant talent and go some way to re-establishing him as a force in modern pop. If only he had a couple more, he'd be within a midget's wink of achieving what's really important to him; critical acclamation, and therefore some sort of Morrissey assuage.
'You Are The Quarry' has one of the best songs Morrissey has ever written. 'First of the Gang To Die' is certainly his best solo effort, but I think it would stand up to most Smithsongs as well. Racy, percussive, then giving way to a mad terrace-chant chorus, with howling lyrics and a ferocious Marr-style guitar/mandolin arrangement. I don't know if it's a surprise or not that he can still produce stuff like this, but it shows a bit of the old spirit and bile is still there after all this time. Is he deliberately keeping it hid? Perhaps to punish the critics, and remember, it was his failure as a rock-writer which inspired him to write lyrics in the first place. When Marr met him he already had reams. Song after song features snippets of reviews and quotes, and all are stuck it to by Moz and his venomous canards and spirants.
'I'm Not Sorry' is a goodish slushy ballad with a cool flute outro, and the album heads for home quite powerfully with the VERY Smithsian, 'All the Lazy Dykes', but it's the final song 'You Know I Couldn't Last' that takes the final lap. 'Paint A Vulgar Picture 2' would be a better title, with it's ruthless barbs at the music industry, and yet more digs at those perennial targets - music journalists.
Solid Mozzer songs to be sure, but the rest is pure filler. 'America is Not the World' (try telling Bono that!) is dull, 'The World is Full of Crashing Bores' is as pretentious as it's desperately eccentric title warns, and 'How Could Anyone Possibly Know How I Feel' is just plain frightful. It's the usual solo Morrissey-down-in-the-dumps confusion, as if he's excitedly found some piece of new self, but can't let go of the(very!) old.
If he calmed down a bit he might enjoy some form of renaissance, but I'm convinced he'd be better employed elsewhere. Give him a TV show, cast him as Hannibal Lecter in the next Thomas Harris adaptation, he'd probably write you a great soap......
We wait with baited breath. He'd need to change his name to Lazarus.

Lot's of sound but very little depth.
This album seems to have become something of a bandwagon record. People happily jump on it and in unison proclaim this to be a definite resurgence in Morrissey's solo career. I'm afraid I have to disagree, although certainly energetic and bolshy this is possibly the most shallow studio album that Morrissey has released.

Most Morrissey albums grow on the listener, Viva Hate and Vauxhall and I being the two best examples, but this album works the other way. You listen to it and initially get the impression that you have been exposed to a strong album, but with repeat listenings, whilst you're ready to engage with the intricacies that accompany the vast majority of Morrissey's work, you become aware of the fact that there is very little underneath the album's pomp and show. The first track America is Not the World is a perfect example of this, on the surface it seems edgy, incisive and challenging but when you reflect on the lyrical content it's actually quite pedestrian as an exposé of American values adding nothing subject-wise and not proving particularly insightful. Musically also there's lots of sound but very little depth, the complete antithesis to an earlier Morrissey album which many would regard as inferior; namely, Kill Uncle.

Come Back to Camden, This World is Full of Crashing Bores, How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel are all further examples of the lack of subtlety and lack of depth that this album showcases. Lyrically I Have Forgiven Jesus is without a doubt the most innovative and interesting song on the album, adding the spark of originality that otherwise this album desperately lacks.

To sum up a perfectly fine album on the surface but musically and lyrically pedestrian when compared to some of his vastly more individual and interesting works, see Viva Hate, Vauxhall and I, Kill Uncle or even Ringleader of the Tormentors for insight into the unique and creative genius that is the upfront genuine Morrissey. For too much of this album what we are seeing is Morrissey shamelessly parodying himself, simplifying and selling himself to make up for the financial failure and rejection of his two previous albums.

the boy writes brilliant music
You have my permission to wallow in the sublime lyrics and glorious music of You are the Quarry. It doesn't get much better than this.