Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
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Free Music Notes for Ringleader of the Tormentors
Free Music Review: Brilliant, dark and enigmatic
Hit: 5 Stars
I think it's quite understandable that this album is getting such mixed reviews - but as Oscar Wilde says, "When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself" ^_^ I think I can see where the naysayers are coming from, but I come down strongly in favor of Ringleader, for several reasons.
Much has been made of the sexuality in the lyrics. If you think about it, though, since the _very first song_ on the _very first Smiths record_, Morrissey has been singing about having sex - and since then, you've got Ask ("if there's something you'd like to try"), Suedehead ("it was a good lay"), I'd Love To ("but only with you"), etcetera...It's true that "I'm spreading your legs, with mine inbetween" is a touch more graphic than anything to date, but from the way it's sung, I don't anyone could rightfully call it obscene.
Speaking of which, the album in general...to me, it seems to be a very ambiguous and very ambivalent approach to the compound subject of love, God and death. Dear God and You Have Killed Me are both somewhat puzzling songs: both seem to be about a sexual awakening, but to me at the moment (I've changed my mind before, and may again), the first is a celebration of it, while the second, immediately afterward, seems to be regretting it. Then after the shattering Life is a Pigsty and several more downbeat songs, Moz ends the album - one can't help but feel ironically - with the chipper 'At Last I am Born.' Does Morrissey believe in God; does he feel he needs God's help? Is he asking for God's help in finding earthly love, or resisting it? And if he's finally become a champion of the flesh over the spirit, then why does he still sound so conflicted?
Someone has called it the first genuinely _depressing_ Morrissey record, and I agree that it's extremely bleak - but in a serious and provoking way. Morrissey sings about his own problems, and those of other people (The Youngest..., The Father...)in a way that makes them seem to be real problems with real weight, not just an excuse for melodic self-pity. He really seems to have grown up.
Musically, some have accused the album of being dull, but it seems to me that the instrumentation is much more striking and varied - take Far-Off Places, Dear God, Pigsty - than on some previous albums, and even with the standard rockers - In the Future is a good example (which sounds an awful lot like Oasis' Cigarettes & Alcohol and T-Rex's Bang a Gong) - the music is well-fitted to the vocal. In some cases it seems to me like the music is intentionally muted or softened to push the vocal forward - and if I'm right about this, it works.
In all, love it or hate it, it has to be acknowledged as a dramatic step forward. I don't think Morrissey has ever made a record like this before.
Free Music Review: The Ringleader Strikes Again
Hit: 5 Stars
He has been deemed "Pope Of Mope", though Morrissey has never really been quite as miserable as everyone is ready to say he is. And, "At Last I Am Born" from his new album "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" is ready to back that up. "...Born" is easily the most celebratory, exalted song in his entire back catalogue, elegantly drawing his new masterpiece to a dramatic, climactic close. It is reminiscent of "The Ordinary Boys" from his first solo album (1988's "Viva Hate"), but this (like much of the new album) is given a breath of freshness with gorgeous, shimmering strings.
All the way from the omnipotent, Eastern-influenced hard rock of the opener "I Will See You In Far Off Places," to the typical "2000's Morrissey" power-rock chord-age of the first single "You Have Killed Me", "Ringleader..." bares some of the most unique work from all of Morrissey's long career. An example of this is the second track, "Dear God Please Help Me". It is a string laden, ultra-ballad that flexes some of the album's best lyrics ("There are explosive kegs/Between my legs/Dear god please help me") and is one of those rare, almost sexual Morrissey tracks.
Other highlights include "The Youngest Was The Most Loved", which has one of the album's most memorable melodies and ends with the repetition of "There is no such thing in life as normal" followed by some somber "Ya da da's". Then there is "Life Is A Pigsty", a (nearly) 7 & 1/2 minute absolute epic that glows and glimmers like nothing else Morrissey has ever done. Its beauty is vast and its melody divinely sparse, lyrics (despite several "Life is a pigsty" repetitions) are splendid, definitely one of the best songs on the album. On "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy", Morrissey also does something different. There are horns, yes, horns. Their addition really secures a place among the other pinnacle tracks for a song that would otherwise be considered "mediocre" or "standard".
Consequently, all this evidence reveals "Ringleader Of The Tormentors" to be Morrissey's most captivating release, well, ever. Proving that he continues to metamorphose into something new and better with each album, and that he really can hold his own without Johnny Marr.
Free Music Review: Classic Moz.
Hit: 5 Stars
The trademark voice is back, as effectively powerful and subtly rich as ever. The trademark lyrics are too, more cynically and irreverently humorous than ever. After nearly a dozen spins, I still laugh out loud at several parts and, though I often try hard in the name of review objectivity, I rarely manage to wipe the wicked smile off my face while engaged in this music. The trademark instrumental backdrop that typically accompanies that emotionally-wonky singer hogging the spotlight is present and accounted for, the richly textured dynamics well-chosen and abundant with brilliant little flourishes such as an untrained children's choir, a brief plunking woodblock line to highlight a particularly tongue-in-cheek lyric, stormy atmospherics, and a trumpet solo. Yeah, a trumpet solo.
To sum up, everything we expect from Morrissey at his best is here in rare form. This is classic Moz, in every sense of the phrase.
In my original review I emphasized the optimism that seems to have stealthily infiltrated Morrissey's communicative brain space. Upon closer examination, it's now quite apparent every positive sentiment has some sort of diabolically situated depressive counterpoint, either delivered by direct statement ("To Me You Are A Work of Art") or ironic juxtaposition ("At Last I Am Born"). This is by no means Moz's "upbeat" album as I've read. It is his most funniest though. Granted, I'm talking Woody Allen funny, not Three Stooges or Larry the Cable Guy funny.
If you've never partaken in Morrissey's musical offerings, this is honest music that atleast deserves an honest chance and, in my opinion, an honest purchase of approval. If you're an established Moz fan, buy it already, and if you don't initially love it, just give it the time grow on you like you know it will.
Free Music Review: To me, a work of art!!
Hit: 5 Stars
`Ringleaders of the tormentors' is the follow up to 2004's brilliant `You are the quarry. It's a more classical (hence the cover photo) and complex effort than that was. The songs are not as immediate, but once they grab you, there's no letting go.
Opening is the middle-eastern orchestrated cut `I will see you in far off places', followed by the lush hymnal (complete with organ) `Dear God please help me' (string arrangement by cinematic guru Ennio Morricone).
`Lead off single `You have killed me' is a catchy upbeat pop/rock song with literate poetic lyrics. Similar are `The youngest was the most loved' with a children's chorus and the Smiths-like `I just want to see the boy happy.
Moving to the other tracks, `In the future when all's well' is upbeat, there is the rather dark but upbeat `The father who must be killed' (a step child that kills her abusive step father and herself), the moody, drenched `Life is a pigsty' (rain storm effects, dripping piano, soothing vocals, midway change in tempo), the ballads `I'll never be anyone's hero now' and the Smiths-like `To me you are a work of art' (Chorus - to me you are a work of art/and I would give you my heart/that's if I had one), `On the streets I ran' (beautiful sunny song, vivid story telling), and `At last I am born' (cutting strings announce a gentle marching beat, children's chorus and cryptic/poetic lyrics).
I know loads of people have knocked Morrissey's last 2 CDs as not living up to his past glories, but I love them both, and they are a hundred times better than most chart fare.
Free Music Review: after several months...
Hit: 5 Stars
I saw Morrissey in Milwaukee a few months back and thought it was o.k. I had picked up You Are The Quarry in advance of the gig and found it hard to enjoy, and I still do. I didn't get the Tormenters CD till this summer, and got it only becuase it was on sale in Hamburg, and I just love it to pieces. I won't rate it alongside the Queen Is Dead, but if I avoid that, it is my absolute favorite Smiths/Morrissey album. The production is massive, gorgeous. The tunes I love from it are not the big ones like "Far Off Places" or "Pigsty" or the almost non-musical "Father Who..." but ALL the rest are absolutely masterful for me. The vocals are so searingly brilliant, genuine, creative, and real that it is transcendent. This is GREAT, deeply human, fully real singing--it is not only immensely rich and present, it is also presented straight and upfront with its 'tiled bathroom' style reverb. It's freshness and rawness may sound off-the-cuff or under-produced from a perspective of those who like the pretty-polished singles, but if you like the honesty that is Morrissey, then these are the bomb--and they are fabulous. And it makes for a whole album that is stunningly sumptious in its instrumentation and production, genuine in it's tremulous vocals--even to the point that they crack, vibrantly potent in its lyricism, and an absolute masterwork of being human in a human skin, with art, wit, and panache that are only fitting. Those who do not appreciate this album so much might want to put it on the shelf, live for another 20 years, and then listen to it again.