Aging isn’t easy for ’80s music icons. U2 may pull it off effortlessly, but Madonna and Duran Duran’s desperate collaborations with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake remind us that it isn’t.
Morrissey’s ego is too big to reach out to former Mousketeers for relevance, but fortunately his strategy for sounding current is genius and effective: Stick to straightforward rock and excellent songwriting. The result is “Years of Refusal,” a fantastic collection of rock songs with no time stamp.
The first single, “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris,” could easily be a Smiths classic, while the rest of the album would have fit excellently into his early ’90s solo catalog that still sounds fresh today. It is undoubtedly his best work since 1994’s “Vauxhall and I” and a refreshing return to form after last year’s release of yet another futile greatest hits record.
Kicking off with one of the album’s standouts, the aggressive “Something Is Squeezing My Skull,” Morrissey sings “I know by now you think I should have straightened myself out / Thank you, good day,” and lyrically the album becomes a 40-minute snarky act of self-defense and self-justification against friends, foes, former lovers and fallen heroes.
Song by song, Morrissey wins his defense case because he has enough clever lines in store to keep his mordancy interesting from start to finish. Singing “I was driving my car / I crashed and broke my spine / So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie,” he finds refreshing ways to justify the cynicism he’s always been accustomed to.
Morrissey can pull off bitterness and smugness not only because he’s smart, funny and wise, but also because his angriest moments combine both self-righteousness and passion. Singing, “Spare priggish moneymen who scared the life out of you / Bailiffs with bad breath, I will slit their throats for you,” the singer asserts vengeance over a marching-style drum beat in the haunting “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed.”
Elsewhere, he shows no signs of turning his renowned frown upside down. Lines like “Just look at me, a savage beast with nothing to sell, and when I die, I want to go to hell,” blend an eerie sense of mockery, anger and apathy that have you wondering whether he’s half joking. Sure, Morrissey’s way of thinking may not be relatable, but it’s admirable that he can say “life is nothing much to lose” and convince anyone that he’s secure.
Every biting lyric is carried by Morrissey’s powerful vocal performance, which sounds straightforward and live like most Smiths records. His voice shines in the album’s climax, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore,” starting out as a soft croon and transitioning into a power-ballad belt that sounds completely revitalized.
The driving guitar sound of “Years” is often decorated with musical textures that keep the otherwise brawny aesthetic interesting. Strings, synthesizers, woodwinds, horns and marching beats are welcomely spliced throughout the album but are never overbearing. They allow each track to effortlessly transition to the next, creating an easy listen from beginning to end. The worst that can be said about the album’s weakest moments, like “Sorry Doesn’t Help,” is not that they’re bad, but simply less inspired because they recount themes already covered by stronger tracks.
On “Years of Refusal,” Morrissey never bothers to push the envelope, reinvent himself or create any career-defining moments, but anyone attuned to Morrissey’s conduct will cherish hearing what they’ve always loved about him. With his winning formula and talent still intact after decades of making music, Morrissey appropriately closes the album asking, “Why change now?”
E-mail Wolf at awolf@media.ucla.edu.