1992 09 Morrissey "Your Arsenal" Review, Q

LOVING

Morrissey saves himself.

• MORRISSEY
Your Arsenal
HIS MASTER'S VOICE CSD 3790 

There comes a point in many major artists' careers where they have to make an album of some significance or the game is well and truly up. Morrissey is at exactly that point. The solo career had reached a stage where the song titles were more interesting than the songs themselves, and many a revisionist knife was sufficiently sharpened to suggest that The Smiths have had little lasting influence - unless James and Raymonde really count - and that, bar a few cracking singles, they weren't actually that great. Your Arsenal is his musical salvation.

It's his wise choice of sidemen that really scores. Mick Ronson is Morrissey's ideal producer. Aside from his serious health problems placing the singer's hypochondria in its proper context, his glam background matches Morrissey's latent '70s fixation, giving a beefy sound - huge drums, sparingly used power chords - that has previously been missing. Guitarist Boz Boorer, an ex-Polecat, might appear a strange choice, but he's well up to the task — if anyone puts a foot wrong, it won't be him.

Importantly, most of the tunes just beg to be whistled. Ex-Fairground Attraction Mark Nevin co-writes a brace of songs but on the rest it's rockabilly guitarist Alain Whyte (ex-Rug Cutter and Memphis Sinner who's been with Morrissey since 1990) who gives Morrissey some of the purest melodies he's ever sung. As for Morrissey himself, he's stopped droning once and for all and even if he can't quite manage sexy, at least he doesn't sound like he's whinging about having to go to the laundrette.

The introduction to the opening You're Gonna Need Someone On Your Side (co-written with Nevin) promises a new improved Morrissey. At once it resembles the grumbling murmur of Richard Thompson's Read It In Books, the rush of The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead and some old swamp-rockabilly tune even The Polecats never heard. Later in the same song, Morrissey tells a joke: "And here I am,” he declaims, as if there were any debate as to whom the "someone" you need is. "Well, you don't need to look so pleased," he moans, right out of Frankie Howerd.

There are many deft, loving touches like that. We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful ("And if they're Northern, that makes it even worse") features strained laughter, "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha", after all sorts of "ooh, look at those clothes" type bitchiness. You're The One For Me, Fatty is as funny as it should be, and The National Front Disco shows a bold willingness to re-open old debates - recalling the misguided campaign to portray Morrissey as racist because he didn't much go for reggae, and the Viva Hate track Bengali In Platforms, which was an irresponsible title for a feeble song - and has a glorious chorus to boot, although clearer enunciation would have helped Morrissey's cause no end. I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday even has samples on it, which splendidly offset Morrissey at his most impassioned and dramatic.

Certain People I Know is Bolan's Ride A White Swan re-visited, and it's as if Morrissey has finally dared to do what he's always really wanted: to merge his childhood rocking (his New York Dolls fetish is well-known) with his own distinct lyricism. Your Arsenal is his best solo work yet and easily stands comparison with the best of The Smiths. *****

John Aizlewood