634. Viva Hate - Morrissey

Ok, so the circumstances under which this album was heard should be put in context. The UK has just voted to leave the EU, the pound and FTSE 100 have collapsed, the Prime Minister had resigned leaving a clear path for Boris Johnson to become our leader, and the Labour party is having an effective civil war over the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. And so, in the middle of this series of absolute nightmare scenarios, we have randomly picked one of the most miserable song-writers ever to have to listen to. 

And how wonderfully cathartic this has been. The biting, sometimes vitriolic language adopted by Morrissey has cut through the heavily caveated commentaries that are everywhere at the moment; "Come Armageddon, Come Armageddon, Come" has rarely sounded so appealing. 

The album opener, Alsatian Cousin, is all angry guitars and bitter words. Everyday is like Sunday, probably the best known song off this album, is a beautifully melancholic anthem. Railing against the sheer monotony and boredom of life, Morrissey manages to somehow sound uplifting. Bengali in Platforms is a much needed pro-immigration song, or at least, not anti-immigration - life really is "hard enough when you belong here". Late Night, Maudlin Street is a well-observed and utterly majestic snapshot of growing up and moving on, with the standard dose of disappointment one would expect of Morrissey. Suedehead is another well known song, and is hugely accessible from the first listen. I Don't Mind If You Forget Me could only ever have been written in the 80s - Van Halen-esque guitar work and a pounding drum beat over a fairly conventional heartbreak song. Yet, it really, really works.

We both enjoyed this album a lot, and I could happily have spent another week really coming to terms with it. Some songs don't hit the dizzy heights of the best moments on the album, such as Treat me like a Human being and Dial a Cliche, but then that is the same for many very good albums. Whilst Morrissey himself may be something of a marmite figure, and impossibly self-centred (a Penguin classic autobiography?), he is also fairly iconoclastic. 

Chloe's rating: 8
Chloe's favourite track: 6. Late night, Maudlin Street
Olly's rating: 8
Olly's favourite track: 3. Everyday is like Sunday

Next week's album is 905. Like Water for Chocolate - Common; not a clue what to expect.