Live at Earls Court

by

Morrissey

Edit

Morrissey's voice has aged like fine wine, and "Morrissey: Live at Earl's Court" showcases some of his finest live material to date. His band, with whom he spent several months touring with has, when compared to when I seen Moz live at both the Apollo pre-album release (You Are the Quarry) and later at Radio City, really has the newer material down pat and help bring the overall concert to a higher level.

The benefit of listening to a live recording of Morrissey as oppossed to seeing him live or in a concert film nowadays is that the old Morrissey, the one who would drape himself over a monitor or twirl around like a whirling dervish is long gone, replaced with a near-wooden shell of the great showman. Fortunately his vocals have benefited from his lapse of visual performance, and "Earl's Court" is evidence that Morrissey, far from being the washout he was near becoming with he lack of credible material or record deal, is at his vox zenith.

Fans who had given up on Morrissey after his last several releases and didn't pick up "You Are the Quarry" should at least pick up "Earl's Court," where Morrissey and the boys do an excellent job of showcasing some of Morrissey's best material from some of the best classic Smiths tracks (How Soon Is Now?, Shoplifters, to name only five Smiths tracks they performed) to early solo material and his present work, which has the most focus in this collection. The weakest track is a cover of Patti Smith's "Redondo Beach," which lacks energy and is too anaerobic for my taste.

I'm having a difficult time accepting the "new, latino-inspired" Morrissey moment. Before I popped this disc into the player, I had "Rank" on my mind. 'How I dearly miss' those early days. The unique and catchy melodies of the Smiths and early Morrissey are gone. Perhaps it's not Morrissey though....it's that band of his! They're boring. Many MOZ fans have claimed the same. The music does not set me back at any degree. The sound quality of "Earls Court" is terrific, but the musical composition is very, very general. The band can't even duplicate Marr's work correctly. O'well....such is life.