Morrissey, Low in High School

Sometimes it’s hard to hear a new Morrissey album for all the shouting from the sidelines. He’s not as good as he was in The Smiths is he? Did you hear what he said about Kevin Spacey? But stop it. Listen to the songs. Judge those and nothing else, for they are all that matter.

In some ways, the new songs are not surprising. Most of the musical arrangements, led by the drum and the stamping foot, are familiar and, in that respect, it’s hard not to ache for Morrissey to try something different. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he reached for the synthesiser or even a new collaborator?

However, the familiarity of the songs is also a melancholic comfort, particularly Morrissey’s talent for a turn-of-phrase that is funny and then suddenly moving. Such as this: “I wish you lonely, like the last tracked humpback whale, chased by gunships from Bergen.” Or this: I have seen many shores, I hugged the land, but nothing more.” And especially this: “I’m not my type.”

Yes, Morrissey is angry at authority on this album and puts the words “Axe the monarchy” on the cover in case you’ve missed the point. But the main theme, as ever, is the one that bothered most of us when we were young and, for many of us, still does: desire unreturned.