Getting up in Morrissey's Business4 Out Of 5 Stars
After setting the record straight with his "Autobiography," Morrissey turns up the guitars and waxes lyrically in the way only he can. "World Peace is None Of Your Business." He's still railing away about apathy, vegetarianism, and unrequited love, It may also be his most guitar heavy album since the classic "Your Arsenal." Longtime cohort Boz Booher is given chords to crunch and leads to distort all across "World Peace," yet Morrissey leaves room for castanets and accordion (an outright solo on "Earth is The Lonliest Planet" and underpinnings of "The Bullfighter Dies," another pro-animal rights screed).
This is a fun album, because Moz sounds like he's having fun singing. Only on "I Am Not A Man" does he come off as strident, but it's very much a statement of purpose than any song he's done in quite awhile. Howling against jocks, meat eaters and those who'd destroy the planet, it also clocks in at nearly eight minutes, the longest song on "World Peace." Many of the songs are vintage Morrissey, like "Staircase At The University," (in which a despondent student kills herself over the admonishments of a disciplinarian father and snobbish boyfriend while a flamenco guitar solos away) and "Kiss Me A Lot," which add a touch of jangle pop to the album.
If you want to herald his return (it's been five years since "Years Of Refusal"), go ahead. But for those of us who thrill to a lyric like:
World peace is none of your business.
Police will stun you with their stun guns
Or they'll disable you with tasers.
That's what government's for,
Oh, you poor little fool.
Then this will feel like the Morrissey many of us have come to know and love.
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