Album Review

Morrissey – Greatest Hits

• 22nd Feb 2008

When I first heard of the impending release of a Morrissey greatest hits album, my mind was racing as to what he’d put on it.

Resisting the temptation to check out the track listing on the web, I decided to wait for that dull slap of the CD package against my doormat.

One shredded bubble-wrap envelope later, I was left a little confused. Did this ensemble of Morrissey-selected tracks really represent his Greatest Hits, or was it simply a précis of his most recent hits?

The opening track sums it up pretty succinctly. ‘First of the Gang to Die’ kicks proceedings off, and you don’t have to be a devout fan to realise that this is to be no sentimental trip down memory lane, much to the chagrin of his fans.

‘In the Future When All’s Well’ follows, which I think pretty much sums up where Moz’s priorities lie at the moment. If you take the moniker of Greatest Hits at face value, it’s pretty clear that he is looking forward rather than back at his career.

In this sense it’s much less a Greatest Hits album than a state of the nation address. Morrissey is the painter stepping back from the wet easel mid-process to take stock and think about his next move.

Your average Greatest Hits album is aimed at the listener, but far from giving the fans what they perhaps want, this is an entirely self-indulgent project.

The inclusion of the Patti Smith track ‘Redondo Beach’ is perhaps the strongest example of this. It’s a good track, but it’s hardly Morrissey’s Greatest Hit now is it?

One of the few nods to the past is the now well-worn ‘Every Day is Like Sunday’. Hardly the definitive track from ‘Viva Hate’ it’s nonetheless a welcome blast from the past. Aside from the memorable ’The More You Ignore me the Closer I Get’ and ’The Last of the Famous International Playboys’, that is where the reminiscence ends.

Don’t get me wrong; I am a self confessed Moz acolyte, but this is not the selection I was expecting. It’s not that the tracks are insipid – they‘re all inspired, but they also still carry the acidic smell of newly pressed Cds to really represent a Greatest Hits album.

Will fans be disappointed? Invariably yes, but the good news to take from this rather unusual selection of songs is the fact that far from calling it a day, there is a very real sense that Morrissey is far from finished with his eloquence and relevance.

That does however beg the question: why a Greatest Hits?