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Product details
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Track Listings
| Disc: 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Good Looking Man About Town | |||
| 2. Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice | |||
| 3. If You Don't Like Me, Don't Look At Me | |||
| 4. Ganglord | |||
| 5. My Dearest Love | |||
| 6. The Never-Played Symphonies | |||
| 7. Sweetie Pie | |||
| 8. Christian Dior | |||
| 9. Shame Is The Name | |||
| 10. Munich Air Disaster 1958 | |||
See all 18 tracks on this disc
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| Disc: 2 | |||
| 1. Black Cloud | |||
| 2. I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris | |||
| 3. I Just Want To See The Boy Happy | |||
| 4. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself | |||
| 5. One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell | |||
| 6. You Just Havent Earned It Yet, Baby | |||
| 7. Life Is A Pigsty | |||
| 8. I'm OK By Myself | |||
Product Description
Review
In 21 years of going it alone Morrissey has produced nine studio albums and just as many compilations. Topping a year that has seen a live DVD and unnecessary remasters of mid-1990s albums Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted – in addition to beefy studio album Years of Refusal – is Swords, Morrissey’s first collection to be entirely made up of B sides.
In addition to an eight-track bonus disc culled from a concert in Warsaw, Swords features 18 B sides spooling back from this year to 2004, the year Morrissey returned from years of stabbing pins into effigies of Mike Joyce – not to mention establishment opprobrium – to be garlanded as the saviour of intelligent pop with You Are the Quarry. That album’s singles provide most of the tracks here, although those from the luscious Ringleader of the Tormenters era dominate the stronger first half.
Though the majority is co-written with band mainstay Alain Whyte, the two proper stand-outs, the open-hearted Christian Dior and the experimental Sweetie-Pie, were respectively written with band veteran Boz Boorer and ex-keyboard player Michael Farrell. Some of the most out-there minutes Morrissey’s put his name to, the looping, warped Sweetie-Pie features the four-octave vocals of one-time support act Kristeen Young and helps form the three-track highlight of the album with Christian Dior and the swaggering, Chrissie Hynde-backed Shame is the Name. From Kirsty MacColl’s sweet sass on Interesting Drug to Siouxsie’s velveteen tongue on Interlude, it’s always been welcome to hear Morrissey’s laggard croon lightened by a female voice, but few if any tracks here match the calibre of those two songs.
Not that there’s been a fatal lack of quality control – there’s no Slum Mums here, thankfully – it’s more that Swords largely sounds like what it is: an off-cuts album from someone who shouldn’t be content with the plodding mediocrity of the likes of I Knew I Was Next. Though there’s the occasional modest jewel to be found here – including the ‘hidden’, roughshod cover of New York Dolls’ Human Being – it’s hard to work out who’ll make the investment bar those that dissect every eyebrow quiver on the fan boards. --Nadine McBay
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Yeah, yeah, yeah... Everyone's churning out the usual, predictable drivel about "Paint a Vulgar Picture". However, whilst that song dealt with a heartless record company making money out of a dead pop star, "Swords" is actually a pretty good purchase. For a start there are 2 tracks on this collection that appear on CD for the first time ("My Dearest Love" and "Drive-in Saturday" were only b-sides on vinyl singles). Secondly, if you snap it up now you get the "Live in Warsaw" disc which is a pretty good concert. Also, the collection comes with a booklet that features the printed lyrics to these tracks for the first time and an interview with the Man himself (an all too rare event these days). I often find that with acts from The Beatles to Pet Shop Boys, b-sides can reveal more about the artist than singles or album tracks ever do. Artists tend to be at their most relaxed and experimental on b-sides. Of course I bought the CD singles but I bought this as well because it's great to have these songs in one collection. Morrissey shouldn't be criticised for this collection, he should be praised. B-sides are a very rare concept these days and how many artists could put together such an album in this age of digital downloads? The only thing I will agree with previous reviewers on is the photo on the front sleeve. Check out the photo on the back of the CD booklet. It's superb, beautiful, moody and atmospheric - it should have been on the front cover! Doh!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It's a shame that this cd seems to be getting negative reviews, even before it was out and I can't fathom why. I'm a recent Mozz-convert and have purchased all the albulms before this and had to snap this one up too. I don't own the singles so it provided me with a useful collection of his recent B-sides which I hadn't heard before, a lot of which should have been featured on the main albulms in my opinion. Good lucking man about town, Don't make fun of daddys voice, ganglord, shame is the name and I knew I was next make this a worthy purchase all on their own. All the tracks are excellent though and you even get a free live cd which has a nice live version of Why don't you find out for yourself on it. I have no problems with the track order either, it all seems to gel along quite nicely and it works as an albulm in its own right. Perhaps not worth a purchase if you already own all the tracks but definetly worth it if you don't, just remember its a compilation, if it bothers you then just don't buy it!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As a long time morrissey fan, this is definitely worth owning if you rate the recent album releases. Its a good selection which in a sense lacks a flow or cohesion, but makes it more enoyable than the bloated excesses of some recent Morrissey albums. Highlights for me on this are 'good looking man about town', 'dont make fun of dadys voice' 'ganglord', and 'shame is the name'. One negative is the poor version of 'drive in saturday', oh dear, Moz murders a classic song.. Still, a solid 3 stars overall for this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Some Gems Here
Swords is Morrissey's 2009 release containing a(nother) mix of B-sides and 'rare' material, covering the period which saw the release of his albums You Are The Quarry, Ringleader... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Keith M
surprisingly good
This is a surprisingly good double album anyone who liked The Smiths but thought that without guitarist Johnny Marr he couldn't be a songwriter should listen to this one. Read more
Published 6 months ago by malmac
Good but needs a trim
Even for a hardcore Moz fan, which I suppose I am, trying to listen to 18 B-sides is a little bit of a slog - for the casual fan it's positively off-putting. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. R. J. Jakeman
Pitiful
reissue repackage re-evaluate the songs. double pack with a photograph, extra track and a tacky badge... He could've said no if he wanted to
Published 14 months ago by Jacko
a serious part of Manchester is missing
Avoiding any repetition or "debate" with other reviewers, I would like to point out that an important song is missing from this collection: "A Song From Under The Floorboards"... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Stefano Galli
Blooming good B-sides
I'll tell you now, I'm an ardent Mozza fan - but have been critical of some of his work in the past... Read more
Published on 30 April 2010 by D. Carrick
Another nice collection of songs from Morrissey
Swords is an album of B-sides from 2004 onwards. Morrissey has a long history of rounding up his harder to find tracks into a neat package and this is a welcome one. Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by klaher
I Like it
To me Swords is excellent moz. i have'nt heard the B sides before but I am recommending it to my 30yr old daughter in law - also a moz fan - long may he still keep singing!
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by Mr. Martin R. Emerson
Hail Morrissey. Again.
I really enjoyed this Record, it has a slightly more melancholy air to it than some recent albums which I Love. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by Kiria Ceinwen
Morrissey never fails to deliver!
Morrissey never fails to deliver! Another thought provoking and quite brilliant ensemble of songs. Ganglord is cool, cool, cool! Buy it!
Published on 22 Jan 2010 by Mr. E. Dunning
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