{"id":43788,"date":"2014-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/world-peace-is-none-of-your-business\/"},"modified":"2014-08-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T00:00:00","slug":"world-peace-is-none-of-your-business","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/world-peace-is-none-of-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"World Peace Is None Of Your Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strange album, this one. On his 10th<\/sup> studio album, Morrissey is as acerbic and opinionated as ever, and the music treads the familiar dour acoustic-based shoegaze that has been his stock in trade since the Smiths\u2019 heyday, only without much of the romanticism. It\u2019s the sound fans love, the point of view they identify with (animal rights, veganism, lack of gender stereotypes, anti-politics, etc.) and they will likely not find any problems with this disc.<\/p>\n

To his credit, Moz is in fine vocal form throughout; if anything, his deep voice has only gotten better with age. But it is in service of some pretty blunt lyrics this time around, such as the anti-marriage rant \u201cKick The Bride Down The Aisle\u201d (\u201cShe 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\u201d) and the excoriation of alpha males in \u201cI\u2019m Not A Man,\u201d which uses short adjectives to describe men before its closing self-congratulation lines (\u201cNo big fat locker room \/ Hockey jock laughing \/ I\u2019m not a man \/ I\u2019d never kill or eat an animal \/ And I would never destroy this planet I\u2019m on\u201d).<\/p>\n

Most pointed is the title track, a condescending rant that orders us to \u201cwork hard and sweetly pay your taxes \/ Never asking what for \/ Oh you poor little fool,\u201d says that \u201cpolice will stun you with their stun guns \u2026 That\u2019s what government\u2019s for\u201d before concluding that \u201cEach time you vote you support the process.\u201d Evidently, at age 55, Moz is done holding back. One only wishes he offered a solution.<\/p>\n

The same change in lyrical approach also applies to the music, which takes several twists and turns and tweaks the formula. \u201cI\u2019m Not A Man\u201d is a strange beast, an eight-minute piece that moves from a croon to a stadium rocker set to lyrics not really meant for either approach, though it is meant to be epic (and evocative of David Bowie, perhaps accidentally, in Morrissey\u2019s higher register). Flamenco guitar and subtle, off-kilter instrumental breakdowns quantify \u201cEarth Is The Loneliest Planet\u201d and \u201cThe Bullfighter Dies.\u201d On the other end is the relatively simple ballad \u201cMountjoy,\u201d a tale of life inside an Irish prison that name-drops Irish writer\/IRA member\/famous drinker Brendan Behan and features the funny line \u201cI was sent here by a three-foot half-wit in a wig.\u201d<\/p>\n

The problem is that one has to search to find these highlights, because more than a few of the songs just don\u2019t resonate to the level of which Morrissey is capable. \u201cNeal Cassidy Drops Dead\u201d (featuring the worst lyrics on the album), \u201cStaircase At The University,\u201d \u201cIstanbul\u201d and the closing drag of \u201cOboe Concerto\u201d are among the duller moments, not because they\u2019re not well played, but because they just don\u2019t register. \u201cSmiler With Knife\u201d tries to be cute but the awkward, jerky rhythm ruins any sense of continuity, and \u201cKiss Me A Lot\u201d is kind of goofy and creepy, but it has horns and handclaps, so there\u2019s that. <\/p>\n

Morrissey faithful will find much to love here, and casual fans will find a few things that standout. Moz is to be commended for changing up his approach and writing lyrics that, for better or worse, actually get one\u2019s attention without being obscure. The variety of world music instruments also enhances many of these admittedly dull songs, making them more interesting than they are. For an artist who always does it his way, World Peace <\/i>is the album that he needed to make right now, and the fact that he does it his own way is to be commended, even if the result is only inconsistently rewarding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":32048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5780],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-43788","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-morrissey","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43788"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}