Three years after the critically acclaimed The Ringleaders of the Tormenters, Morrissey returns with more wrist-cuttingly good times. In Years of Refusal — the last output by producer Jerry Finn before his sudden death last August — Morrissey moves further in the direction of Finn’s other bands (think blink-182, Sum 41, Green Day).
Lyrically, the album sounds even more like a melodramatic MySpace blog than we’ve come to expect from Morrissey. But lines like “There’s so much destruction all over the world/and all you can do is complain about me” (“All You Need Is Me”) combined with the heavy instrumentation of Finn’s glossy pop punk makes for an uncomfortably saccharine album.
Despite matching the lyrical morbidity of less successful tracks, a slower tempo and synth line in the second half of the album exhibit Morrissey’s talent as a vocalist, particularly in “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore.” The album’s stand-out track is its only ballad, “You Were Good in Your Time.” Its haunting combination of Spanish guitars, synthesizers, and dialogue from a French film, helps ease the lonelygirl115 feel of lines like “You made me feel not quite so deformed, uninformed and hunchbacked.”
Hometown: Davyhulme, Lancashire, England Label: Decca/Lost Highway Release Date: Feb. 16 Sounds Like: blink-182 scores a Michael Haneke film Sounds Best When: You’re looking for a new quote to put on your LiveJournal 99-cent budget choice: "You Were Good in Your Tim"
