Viva Hate [Extra tracks, Special Edition]

Viva Hate stands up as Morrissey's best solo work to date. At this early stage in his solo career, Morrissey still retained his dry, arch, sense of humour and his sense of Englishness. Sadly his relocation to LA and obsession with America has greatly marred his writing in recent years.

The album hangs well together, with Steven Street proving a good song-writing partner (the best he has had since the split from the inimitable Johnny Marr). Vinni Reilly's guitar work is tremendous.

However this album has been let down by bonus tracks. For the most part they are utterly forgettable and date from later in his career. Even the inclusion of the splendid Disappointed is a mistake as the live version chosen is so ropy.

Everything about this version smacks of, "Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package! / Re-evaluate the songs / double-pack with a photograph / Extra Track (and a tacky badge)" as Morrissey himself complained on The Smiths Paint a Vulgar Picture. Shame on EMI for this abomination. And why mess with original cover art, which was atmospheric and in keeping with the mood of the album? The new cover is vile.

If you can get hold of the original release, without the extraneous nonsense then do so. If not, then, like me, you'll probably stop the CD after track 12.

Released in 1988 - and immediately written off by the newly baggy loving critics as an attempt by Morrissey to ape the style and sound of the recently defunct Smiths - Viva Hate has retained something of an unjust, negative reputation as illustrating the singer's initial career false-start and, is undeservedly considered to be a weaker effort than later joys, Your Arsenal, Vauxhall & I, and the recent, You Are the Quarry. But why is this? Viva Hate remains one of my favourite albums of the 80's, and is still - as far as I'm concerned - the perfect introduction to the wonders of Morrissey-solo.

The original 12 track album opens with the sublime Alsatian Cousin, which finds Morrissey in a rare, hard-edged mode, as electric guitars wail away, wracked with distortion (this was the era of My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Pixies after all) as those heart-wrenching opening lyrics ("were you and he lovers, and if you were then say that you were") ably set up the sense of emotional over-kill that the singer was going for. It's an intense moment, brining to mind the musical ferocity of a song like The Queen is Dead, but complementing it with the kind of ambiguous emotional narratives found in tracks like I Know it's Over, I Won't Share You and Last Night I Dreamt... It also points the way to later wayward formula-experiments in both style and attitude scattered throughout the remainder of this record.

From here we press on through the nice throwaway, Little Man What Now?, into that utterly classic single, Everyday is Like Sunday -- the only song I can think of that truly encapsulates the boredom and malaise of everyday life ("trudging slowly over wet sand, back to the bench where your clothes were stolen"). The guitars are exquisite, the strings divine, and I still have a crush on that sullen girl from the video over 15 years on (shocking really, I was 5 when this came out!)... Oh, and did I mention that it's better than anything by the Smiths? because it is. Bengali in Platforms is a condensation of the Buddha of Suburbia, and although the lyrics are, to an extent, deeply provocative ("life is hard enough when you belong here"), it is in no way as bombastic as later songs like The National Front Disco. In fact, it's rather sweet... filled with vibrant guitars and some lovingly warm contradictions ("he only wants to embrace your culture... and to be your friend forever").

As previously noted, the guitar is a standout instrument throughout Viva Hate, with Morrissey employing the talents of the Durutti Column's Vini Reilly, who brings his trademark bouncy-calypso alternative sound to a number of the tracks, most obviously that other great single Suedehead and the acoustic-space-rock epic, Late Night-Maudlin Street. This is another one of those all time great Morrissey songs, sounding like Scott Walker (echoing Angel, Angel Down we go Together - which is brilliant) singing Astral Weeks. Some have argued that Reilly's playing, though perfect for these slower tracks, is somewhat at odds with the more rocking numbers, like the above-mentioned Alsatian... and the later, I Don't Mind if you Forget me... though I would have to disagree. The slower songs bring to mind the pastoral elegance of Durutti Column tracks like Jacqueline, In the Dawn and the Missing Boy, whilst the more up-tempo numbers can only show that Reilly, as a guitarist, is easily on par with the likes of G&R's Slash or Eddy Van Halen.

Admittedly, Dial-A-Cliché isn't going to convert anyone, figuring as perhaps the blandest thing Morrissey has ever put his name on... As for Margaret on the Guillotine however, I think it's great. The lyrics are largely uninspiring, though they do have a direct honesty about then; while that guitar is simply fantastic. Plus, everyone loves a Thatcher bashing... even if Elvis Costello's brilliant Tramp the Dirt Down (from the underrated Spike LP) pretty much covered this very same subject matter the year before. Doh!! Still, Viva Hate is an album that demands re-assessment... and with You Are the Quarry doing well in the charts, and Morrissey finally performing some gigs in the UK, what better time to do it?

(insert a quote from any part of Paint A Vulgar Picture by The Smiths here)

And so the fleecing of the faithful continues without pause. Adrift in a commercial wasteland, without contract and with millions in the bank, Morrissey further cheapened his reputation with his sixth compilation in a row. Seventh, if you include the shameful "Very Best Of The Smiths".

So after "Suedehead - The Best Of", "My Early Burglary Years - The B-Sides", "The Best Of Morrissey", "Singles 88-91" and "Singles 91-95" box sets, comes this entirely superflous 20 track reissue version of "Viva Hate" with new artwork and photos taken from 5 years after the album originally came out, thrown together with eight extra b-sides from 1989 to 1994. At best it sounds like a random compilation CD someone put together for no reason whatsoever. You can't polish a turd and to all intents and purposes that is exactly what this is.

In case you haven't got the gist I strongly recommend you avoid buying this cheap and tacky ripoff.

And now to go back in time. Musically speaking this is to be treasured, because not only is it from the era when Morrissey actually made records and left the house, but most of it represents the era before Morrissey "lost it" in dated nostalgia and diminishing returns. There's three distinct things that needs to be reviewed.

a) "Viva Hate"

In a rare decision I agree with, this album regarded by Morrissey as hastily-put together without the best choice of songs. Overall the impression the album gives is that of sterility, and adrift from his former musical partners in The Smiths, he sounds lost but defiant. There's an abnormal number of slower tempo tracks, sounding as if the album was conceived in a test tube, and lyrically it can be seen as a concept album about the end of his former band. With song titles like "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me" and "Break Up The Family", it can be fair to say that this album was the start of Morrissey's first period of isolation - his former band split, his creative juices drying, and his inspiration lacking, as can be seen in the mediocre "Kill Uncle".

It's fairly clear that the split wasn't for musical reasons. In fact, it might as well bear the words "The Smiths" on the front. Vini Reilly - of the Durutti Column - performs exceptionally well, even though he and the rest if the backing are no more than hired guns supporting songs written by producer Stephen Street and Morrissey.

It's not his best album by far. The pacing is poor, a series of slow songs punctuated by the odd faster number, and ideally suited for sitting in your bedroom miserable as hell. By Morrissey standards then, its an absolute corker, and long before he disappeared into some world of bequiffed Mod teddy boys, wheelchairs, boxers, wrestlers, gangsters, and other marginalised English trivia.

As an album then, "Viva Hate" is, despite its weaknesses, a strong and promising start to a best-uneven solo career. If you must buy it, get the original 12 track version second hand somewhere. There's more than enough copies doing the rounds.

b) "The extra tracks"

Bluntly put - these are mostly rubbish and I can see why they didn't make any album in its own right. The chronology of this makes it sound like some cheap, shoddy compilation, which is, oddly enough, exactly what it is The songs themselves are generally flimsy b-sides, bolstered only by the best-solo-song ever Morrissey has recorded in the shape of "I've Changed My Plea To Guilty", and taken from a variety of line ups, sessions, and even includes live leftovers. Quite why, for example, EMI chose this bunch of rubbish, over say the 7 or 8 leftover songs from the "Viva Hate" sessions themselves - most of which were mercifully released as b-sides over time - and stand far above the actual selections here, is a mystery.

In short, if you don't own the singles and absolutely positively must own these songs then by all means buy this CD but be aware that you are getting royally shafted in the process.

c) "The reissue"

Thanks EMI. Reissue. Repackage. Put them into different sleeves. Extra track. All that's missing on this CD is the tacky badge, but then again, it does come in a tacky box, so that's almost good enough isn't it.

Overall, "Viva Hate" is great. But the extra tracks and tacky reissue are cheap, uneccessary, and leave a bad taste in the mouth. Avoid