post 'Official' reviews of Swords

Maurice E

Junior Member
None in this month's music mags which is v unusual considering the release date. However, one has just appeared on the BBC website. The three standout songs are considered to be Christian Dior, Shame is the Name, and ... Sweetie Pie!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/hwd3

"In 21 years of going it alone Morrissey has produced nine studio albums and just as many compilations. Topping a year that has seen a live DVD and unnecessary remasters of mid-1990s albums Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted – in addition to beefy studio album Years of Refusal – is Swords, Morrissey’s first collection to be entirely made up of B sides.

In addition to an eight-track bonus disc culled from a concert in Warsaw, Swords features 18 B sides spooling back from this year to 2004, the year Morrissey returned from years of stabbing pins into effigies of Mike Joyce – not to mention establishment opprobrium – to be garlanded as the saviour of intelligent pop with You Are the Quarry. That album’s singles provide most of the tracks here, although those from the luscious Ringleader of the Tormenters era dominate the stronger first half.

Though the majority is co-written with band mainstay Alain Whyte, the two proper stand-outs, the open-hearted Christian Dior and the experimental Sweetie-Pie, were respectively written with band veteran Boz Boorer and ex-keyboard player Michael Farrell. Some of the most out-there minutes Morrissey’s put his name to, the looping, warped Sweetie-Pie features the four-octave vocals of one-time support act Kristeen Young and helps form the three-track highlight of the album with Christian Dior and the swaggering, Chrissie Hynde-backed Shame is the Name. From Kirsty MacColl’s sweet sass on Interesting Drug to Siouxsie’s velveteen tongue on Interlude, it’s always been welcome to hear Morrissey’s laggard croon lightened by a female voice, but few if any tracks here match the calibre of those two songs.

Not that there’s been a fatal lack of quality control – there’s no Slum Mums here, thankfully – it’s more that Swords largely sounds like what it is: an off-cuts album from someone who shouldn’t be content with the plodding mediocrity of the likes of I Knew I Was Next. Though there’s the occasional modest jewel to be found here – including the ‘hidden’, roughshod cover of New York Dolls’ Human Being – it’s hard to work out who’ll make the investment bar those that dissect every eyebrow quiver on the fan boards."
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords

No Slum Mums?

Has she listened to the record? It's one of the bonus tracks (along with Human Being). Or have I got my facts wrong?

I'm always a little wary of reviews of collected material. I imagine it's tempting for the journo to spend a couple of hours in the pub then review the tracks from memory.

Nice that the intriguing Sweetie Pie gets a nod for its experimentation. Although I'd have quite liked it if Swords was bookended with both versions.
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords

No Slum Mums?

Has she listened to the record? It's one of the bonus tracks (along with Human Being). Or have I got my facts wrong?

I'm always a little wary of reviews of collected material. I imagine it's tempting for the journo to spend a couple of hours in the pub then review the tracks from memory.

Nice that the intriguing Sweetie Pie gets a nod for its experimentation. Although I'd have quite liked it if Swords was bookended with both versions.

'The Slums Mums' is only on the Itunes version, if I'm not mistaken.

The alternate version of 'Sweetie Pie' was not sanctioned by Morrissey -- apparently Mikey said that he recorded the instrumental with other musicians to fit a previously recorded vocal.
I don't think Morrissey has even acknowledged Mikey's version yet.
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords on BBC site

whoops, this thread title should've said 'official reviews of Swords', with the idea that people would post them here.
I don't expect there to be more than one on the BBC site!
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords on BBC site

So they deem "Sweetie-Pie" as a stand-out track but make no mention of "The Never-Played Symphonies" or "My Dearest Love"? Plenty of credibility in that one.
 
Re: huh

Wait, I'm sorry, what was that?

I don't think it's particularly fair to call someone crazy just because you don't understand them. Evidently, you feel that way too, but only when it pertains to you.
:rolleyes:
Thanks..

You're a good boy.

--
I've said: as it's possible that"Sweet-pie" has a "alternative version" others songs maybe has an alternative or demo version.

Is it so hard to you understand?
I'm not English nor American, therefore my english is not so good - but it's not bad at all.
 
Re: huh

Where do you find so-called alternative versions?

In Sweetie Pie's case, Mikey kindly brought to the radio station which rarely happened.
Most of the demos / alternative takes are tightly guarded by Morrissey and his associates.
 
hmmm

If you understand my post #10, you won't ask anymore question.
Where do you find so-called alternative versions?

In Sweetie Pie's case, Mikey kindly brought to the radio station which rarely happened.
Most of the demos / alternative takes are tightly guarded by Morrissey and his associates.

Has Morrissey released different versions of his songs except live versions?

'This Charming Man' has London, Manchester and New York remix, but Morrissey and Johnny disapproved those alternative versions.

'Interlude' and 'Moonriver' have single edit, longer version and instrumental (Interude only).
Single edit and longer version are almost identical, simply the length is different.

Of course Morrissey and composers make demos before start recording the songs.
During the recordings Morrissey himself, composers and the producer will arrange / change the structure of the songs, then we get a finished product (album / singles).
 
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Re: hmmm

If you understand my post #10, you won't ask anymore question.

Has Morrissey released different versions of his songs except live versions?

'This Charming Man' has London, Manchester and New York remix, but Morrissey and Johnny disapproved those alternative versions.

'Interlude' and 'Moonriver' have single edit, longer version and instrumental (Interude only).
Single edit and longer version are almost identical, simply the length is different.

Of course Morrissey and composers make demos before start recording the songs.
During the recordings Morrissey himself, composers and the producer will arrange / change the structure of the songs, then we get a finished product (album / singles).

Geezus calm down Kewpie. Raphael's first language is not english so there's no point trying to clear something up he didn't mean in the first place. Just a misunderstanding is all.
 
Re: hmmm

Geezus calm down Kewpie. Raphael's first language is not english so there's no point trying to clear something up he didn't mean in the first place. Just a misunderstanding is all.

Thanks.
I don't know why Kewpie is so nervous.
But it doesn't matter.. she's perfect and she knows: I love her.
 
Re: hmmm

Of course Morrissey and composers make demos before start recording the songs.
During the recordings Morrissey himself, composers and the producer will arrange / change the structure of the songs, then we get a finished product (album / singles).

Of course.

This has shed unprecedented light on the song-writing/recording process. You have an (admittedly very dull) light and it never goes out. Be proud of that. Being like one of his songs makes you a good fan.
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords on BBC site

So they deem "Sweetie-Pie" as a stand-out track but make no mention of "The Never-Played Symphonies" or "My Dearest Love"? Plenty of credibility in that one.

Ditto that. "Sweetie Pie?" That seems an awful stretch just to make the point that she likes it when Morrissey sings duets with a female vocalist.
 
Re: 'Official' reviews of Swords on BBC site

So they deem "Sweetie-Pie" as a stand-out track but make no mention of "The Never-Played Symphonies" or "My Dearest Love"? Plenty of credibility in that one.

Well yes, actually. A fan would consider Never Played Symphonies to be a gem but to any non-fan, it's actual a plodding two & a half minutes of nothing.

I agree with you on My Dearest Love though.
 
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