Morrissey- World Peace Is None of Your Business- Album review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbve574h7c

http://pitchfork.com/news/55510-morrissey-performs-new-song-kick-the-bride-down-the-aisle-live/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Is_None_of_Your_Business

Album released: 15th July 2014

The problem with listening to Morrissey is that although he’s undoubtedly a bit of a poet, he’s also a bit of a pessimist as well. His view on human nature can be summed up by the following lyric from his new album, World Peace is None of Your Business.’ That lyric is from the nihilistic ‘Mountjoy.’

‘What those in power do to you reminds us at a glance how humans hate each others guts and show it given the chance.’

I would strongly argue that this is really not the case. Sure there are a minority of sociopathic and psychopathic personality types that gravitate towards positions of power and authority just so they can satisfy their need to abuse people, all done in an official capacity of course, but these people are not the majority, they are a very sick minority. The problem with humanity is that we allow this sick minority to have power over us because we vote to give them that power. The first track on this album illustrates that point with its refrain, 'Each time you vote, you support the process.’ That’s the problem with humanity, not that we hate each other, but that we give our power away to officially commissioned sociopaths who get together and call themselves ‘Government.’

Morrissey is getting there, but pessimism still dominates his work. Here are a couple of examples of that pessimism. In ‘Staircase at the University’ a girl throws herself down some stairs because she fails to get the three ‘A’ grades that her uncaring family and boyfriend demand of her. This observation is not exactly insightful, and it rings hollow as well. Do her family not care about her at all? This case is an exception, as most families care about each other, a lot. Why shine a spotlight on a depressing aberration?

‘Oboe Concerto’ looks bleakly at the failure of the dying generation that came before him, with a conclusion that his generation is also going to fail. I really don’t see how this helps anyone, as it’s looking on the unhappy side of life, telling people not to bother trying to change anything because it’s all hopeless and we’re all doomed anyway. Do you know who loves that kind of attitude? The control system known as ‘Government.’

Morrissey needs to concentrate more on the socio-political side of his lyrics and stop being gloomy just for the sake of being gloomy. There are some valuable insights into human nature and relationship dynamics on this album that say a lot about life without telling you that it’s probably best if you don’t bother getting up out of bed in the morning. The best example of this is in the song ‘Kick the Bride Down the Aisle’ where he shines a cutting beam upon a woman who picks a man not for love, but because she wants her own personal house slave who will do all of the hard work for her.

‘She just wants a slave to break his back in pursuit of a living wage so that she can laze and graze for the rest of her days write down every word I say.’

And yes, I will write it down, because that’s insightful and I agree with what you are saying here Moz. There are lots of people in the UK today who are exactly like the woman you are describing. So why knock out a song with the title ‘Earth is the Loneliest Planet?’ It’s a good tune for sure, but boy is it depressing, and you know what? It’s not even true. The last line of the song is, ‘And there is nothing anyone can do.’ I disagree; there’s a lot you can do. Learnt helplessness is something that the elite’s love, so stop indulging in it yourself Moz.

A quick wrap up of the best tunes then, although for long-time Morrissey fans you know what you’re getting here. Lyrics that seem forced because the content is more important to Moz than the flow of that lyric (‘Wolf down, wolf down T-bone steak, cancer of the prostate’), and songs that don’t quite work (‘Neal Cassady Drops Dead’ has very oddly compacted lyrics with Morriseey coming perilously close to rapping). There are a lot of musically interesting jingles and jangles on the album as well, so there’s some musical creativity going on, although let’s be honest, it’s the lyrics we’re buying this album for, not the musicianship.

The best song on the album is the title track, ‘World Peace is None of Your Business,’ both lyrically and musically this song just works. A lot of the other songs are ‘growers.’ The one’s with the most potential being the jaunty ‘Istanbul and the ‘Vauxhall and I’ reminiscent ‘Kick the Bride Down the Aisle.’

It seems like a strange thing to say, but Morrissey is almost getting there. He’s still a pessimist, but I see some light in his lyrics now. ‘World Peace Is None of Your Business’ is an excellent song that really captures the zeitgeist of our times in a way that is missed by the vast majority of contemporary pop songs that still obsess over teenage anxieties and bad boyfriend issues. The album as a whole has buckets of pessimism, but there’s wisdom there as well, littered amongst the nihilism of course. One of the most enjoyable things about the album is to discover the nuggets of gold amongst the black crumbly rock dust. I’ll begin to wrap up this review with one of those nuggets. You’re not quite there yet Moz, but you are well on your way.

‘World peace is none of your business, you must not tamper with arrangements. Work hard and sweetly pay your taxes, never asking “what for?”

People are starting to ask that question, and real change is coming. And after all this time it’s nice to see that good old uncle Morrissey is coming along for the ride.
Rating: 8/10