You Are the Quarry

Morrissey has never found a musical cohort who could flesh out his existential pinings the way Johnny Marr did in the Smiths, but so what? Can you name another pop singer over 40 whose angst is as undiminished as it was 20 years ago? Morrissey doesn’t mellow: You Are the Quarry finds him angry, melodramatic, and as hysterical as ever. He rails against “lockjaw pop stars, thicker than pig shit” in “The World Is Full of Crashing Bores,” but mostly he just wants the object of his affection to realize he’s not one of them. Floating on a bed of acoustic guitars and percolating synths, “America Is Not the World” is both a love letter to, and a scathing indictment of, the recent expatriate’s current home. The swooning “I Have Forgiven Jesus” and the urgent rocker “How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel” both have the grandeur and humor to live up to their titles. Moz being Moz, love is always unrequited, desire perpetually unfulfilled, and all apologies accompanied by a kick in the shin. What’s not to love?