Album Review: Morrissey - Low In High School

Eleven solo records deep and hell is still closer to freezing over than that ever-desirable Smiths reunion.

Brace yourselves then for Low In High School on which Steven Patrick Morrissey is determined to remind us exactly who he is. Every face of Moz is delivered with the showy panache of Broadway, from the deliberately provocative cover to the sultrily wanton In Your Lap and its metaphorically and musically horned-up companion When You Open Your Legs.

And the 58-year-old is still as horny and frustrated as ever, fully committing to a chaotic barrage of Spiders From Mars-ish guitars on My Love, I'd Do Anything For You, declaring rhetorically "Weren't we all born / to mourn and to yawn at the occupations / that invade every day of our lives". Lyrically, there's much less decoding to be done than usual, but he sounds far from tired of it all.

Spent The Day In Bed jauntily bounces like it's enjoyed a line of psychedelic intervention thanks to producer Joe Chiccarelli whose fingers are deeply dipped in classic American artists like Frank Zappa, Beck and The Strokes giving it a tangible robustness, all the while allowing Morrissey's voice to dominate.​