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CRITIC REVIEWS
80
Low in High School, his 11th solo album, is as dazzling and infuriating as anything in his canon, full of the stuff that has made the 58-year-old former Smiths frontman one of the most provocative and adored stars of our time.
80
Despite the new brightness in his voice, Morrissey is as dark as ever.
75
The bar for his new one, Low In High School, was so low as to be practically underground. He’s managed to claw himself out of that hole, bouncing back with what might be his best album since 2004’s You Are The Quarry. And though it doesn’t match Morrissey’s achievements from, let’s say, 1982 until 1994, that’s also not really a fair hurdle to expect him to climb.
70
There is an intellect and an intuitiveness to almost the whole record that resonates more and more deeply with each listen. While there are certainly moments where seemingly incomprehensible lyrical and thematic choices are made, there are many more where there’s a sense of communion and comradeship.
70
As philosophical alt-rock standup goes, the man is still peerless.
65
‘Low In High School’ is a mixed if mostly solid effort and fans will find material to enjoy here. Morrissey has definitely delivered far stronger solo albums – and recently, at that – but those willing to overlook the album’s flaws will find a decent amount of solid material, with a few excellent cuts dotted amongst them.
60
It’s when Morrissey leaves the polemic behind that ‘Low In High School’ feels more vibrant.
60
What it all amounts to is your standard Morrissey solo album: great songs cheek-by-jowl with songs that would once never have got past reception; brilliance alongside stuff that boggles the mind; not bad, but not built to reach far beyond his standard fanbase.
60
Low in High School can seem as aurally conflicted as it is politically, and that may be an appropriate look for Morrissey in 2017: He's opted for a mad world of his own creation and doesn't much care whether his fans follow or not.
60
His 11th solo studio album Low in High School is a mixed bag of brilliance and dross. There are some genuinely interesting new explorations while other tracks are deeply disappointing. Disconcertingly uneven, yes, but not safely predictable.
58
If you were never a fan of Morrissey, then, yeah, fuck this album, and fuck him too. But, if you’ve loved his music since The Smiths, and their music actually brings you joy, well, then there are things to be found on Low in High School that could possibly, maybe, present a solid argument for attempting to find a way to suck the goodness from this album … while spitting out the pulp that is Morrissey himself.
57
If later solo highlights like 2004’s You Are the Quarry felt like catching up with an old friend, Morrissey’s music is now more like scrolling through their Twitter feed and remembering why you stopped hanging out in the first place.
51
The ex-Smiths frontman’s Low In High School is another addition to the ever-weakening Moz canon, a decline that started, frankly, with the B-side of Strangeways Here We Come and continues to fall into a seemingly bottomless pit of snide despair.
50
These days he sounds like he simply doesn’t understand human beings any more, and Low in High School is often little more than the utterly disengaged pronouncements of a wealthy hermit, who needs to get out of his LA mansion a little more often.
50
While the earlier album showed renewed gallows intensity, this is in many ways his weakest album since Kill Uncle.
40
The 12-song album’s first five tracks are passable, if not actually quite enjoyable. Beyond this point, though, only the most hardened Moz fan should dare to venture.
40
Morrissey can alienate fans with outlandish outbursts or with decidedly average new music, but both at the same time is surely too much for even the most forgiving fan.
40
While there’s no denying that Low In High School is more musically exploratory than usual, drawing from glam rock, electropop, tango and Tropicalismo, the singer himself has rarely exhibited such a grating combination of spite and self-pity.
40
Like 2014’s ‘World Peace Is None of Your Business’ which came before it, any smudge of sincerity is often overshadowed by a nasty cynicism and a smug self-righteousness.
40
‘Low In High School’ feels confused, misplaced, and tedious.
40
On Low in High School, it's hard not to hear Morrissey as an old dog who's watching the world pass him by. He's increasingly content to preach to the converted, limiting his audience to those who can put up with his crotchety ways—a stubborn streak that's a little less charming with every passing year.
30
Low In High School is the latest in a long string of wet sausages that Morrissey has cruelly inserted into the ears of his audience. It’s hard to understand why his followers don’t storm off instead, for good.
30
It's Morrissey's weakened, diminished lyricism that kicks it down from being a solid-if-not-stunning Moz record to something almost unpalatable. What the hell happened?
Not even people that can overlook Morrissey's racism will defend this album: that's how bad it is.
The reception to this record has been refracted through the muddy lens of 'bad publicity' because Morrissey, in his old age, has taken to constantly saying very stupid things; but its unfortunate because this record is actually good as hell.
Unfortunately, this album just cerificates that Morrissey was low not only in high school but he is also low on the eve of old age, releasing a dozen of songs, so overweight, that can hardly breathe.
In trying to put all of the focus on the delivery of lyrics, and subsequently relying heavily on organic songwriting intuition, the album became a flat, one dimensional, and boring experience, with Morrissey not being able to break from the basic, ground level textures of his culture or a Middle Eastern one, despite the messages coming across strong and everything serving a collective purpose. My Score: 103/180 (Okay) = 57/100
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MISC LISTS
| / | Radio X |
Track List
- My Love, I'd Do Anything for You
- I Wish You Lonely
- Jacky's Only Happy When She's Up on the Stage
- Home Is a Question Mark
- Spent the Day in Bed
- I Bury the Living
- In Your Lap
- The Girl from Tel-Aviv Who Wouldn't Kneel
- All the Young People Must Fall in Love
- When You Open Your Legs
- Who Will Protect Us from the Police?
- Israel
In Library (21)
consequenceofsound.net
Billy Bragg blasts Morrissey for support of right-wing, extremist political party pitchfork.com
Morrissey Shares New Song “I Wish You Lonely” pitchfork.com
Morrissey Shares New Song “Spent the Day in Bed” 
Added on: August 22, 2017
