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Suedehead: The Best Of Morrissey by: Morrissey

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Rating: - Paint A Vulgar Picture

The title of this erratic collection (The Best Of...) is something of a misnomer. It does include some of Morrissey's finest songs since the acrimonious split of The Smiths (Everyday Is Like Sunday, You're The One For Me, Fatty, The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get). However, it also includes some run of the mill tracks (My Love Life, Ouija Board, Ouija Board) and two howlers (bland mid-1990s singles `Sunny' and `Boxers'). The Best Of... reeks of a job hastily conceived and half-done: the track-listing appears to have been assembled at random and the sleeve-work is unimpressive. It brings to mind the words of Morrissey himself on The Smiths barbed, brilliant take on the excesses and cynicism of the music industry -`Paint A Vulgar Picture': "Best Of! Most Of!/Satiate the need/slip them into different sleeves!/Buy both, and be deceived".

Rating: - A great introduction to Morrisseys solo career

Despite the slightly embarassing cheesy cover this album is a lovely collection of Morrisseys songs in his solo career. This does not include the singles from You are the Quarry or any albums since then.
I wouldn't say this is the best of Morrissey and I wasn't pleased that the song 'Disappointed' wasn't included. But this is still a great collection of his tunes and ideal for a newly recruited fan who has his last few albums and are interested in an introduction to some of his early stuff. If you are interested in buying the whole collection of his albums, I would suggest having a listen to this first to see if this appeals to you! In my humble opinion though this should be called a collection rather than the best of.
Hope this helps.

Rating: - The Second Best of Morrissey

The difficulty of an album called `The Best of Morrissey' is that the best of Morrissey can really only be found on an album called `The Best of The Smiths'.

However, this album was released in 1997 and is based around the four studio albums and various singles that Morrissey recorded for the HMV imprint after The Smiths split. A 70 minute compilation from such material was always going to be a bit weak and a shorter more focussed album may have worked better.

This collection does have some marvellous songs on it like `Suedehead', `Everyday is Like Sunday' and `The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get' but they are thinly spread across the whole affair with little attention paid to running order or any attempt to actually construct an album out of the assembled songs. The inclusion of the cover of The Jam's `That's Entertainment', originally released as a b-side highlights the failings of this anthology, its original sequencing was the right choice. What can I tell you, `We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful'.

Rating: - Interesting

I think it's fair to say that Morrissey's solo output has never really matched the brilliance of The Smiths, but there is evidence on this 'Best Of' cd that he's sometimes come close. 'Suedehead' and 'Boxers' in particular are brilliant tracks and wouldn't have been too out of place on 'Strangeways Here We Come'. His cover of 'That's Entertainment' is good and 'Every Day is Like Sunday' is a bit of a classic, although the lyrics do tie it to the late eighties.

The middle of the cd takes a bit of a dip I think, a lot of the tracks sounding a bit sub-standard. But it picks up again when he gives full vent to his strange sense of humour with songs like 'You're the One for Me Fatty' 'Last of the Famous International Playboys' and 'We Hate it When our Friends Become Successful'.

It's a shame he and Johnny Marr don't work together anymore - together they produced music touched by genius. But this is worth a listen for the stand out moments outlined above.

Rating: - The Best Of...? Well more a useful addition

I really enjoy this album. It's a bit unusual, but then you didnt expect it to be normal, did you?

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