In The Future When All's Well

Featuring a mild glam rock stomp in it's fluid playing this song is a wonderful late period single which seems, to my ears at least, to be very sardonic in its subject matter.

Chronicling an unknown future time when all concerns will be assuaged and issues worked out I do believe this is Morrissey addressing himself regarding his persistent obsessions and recurring fears. It's all here, an overwhelming pre-occupation with death, the pitfalls of love, the appreciation for a soul who could provide it but the song has its tongue firmly in its cheek. It's the Morrissey of 2006, a time when he was in fact riding pretty high having fun at our expense with his own take on the themes best shown in the rat pack classic "The Best is Yet to Come".

It's a riposte to all those people who see someone with a sullen expression and rudely interject with that most dispiriting of phrases, "Cheer up, it might never happen." The song seems to take this false and myopic cheer and filter it through a healthy dose of irony. Is there really a "Lee" who could stand up and defend him? It doesn't matter, Morrissey is singing to an archetype here, a friend to see this new future with and although all will be well there, the song has the odd lurch with its "paired off, pawed til I can barely stand it" lyric, we must wonder just how secure this brave new world of joy really is. In various media the future is so often portrayed as a dystopia but here Moz gives us perhaps a flawed Utopian take on the "wait and see" notion. Time will never erase the things which plague him no matter where this world goes. Some things are just eternal. Morrissey finding faults and crooning about them is one such stalwart and his diatribes will echo long after his personal future is ended by his own "long, long sleep."

From a musical point of view the song is a triumph, a comfortable mid tempo rocker where the keyboard and backing vocals give it an extra colour and weight. The production of Tony Visconti locks the piece in a wonderful if slightly cluttered groove. One could almost paraphrase an old b-side of his here the song "Girl Least Likely to", ""There's happiness,...in the new year" (It's never in this year)."

Video Note: A loose sequel of sorts to the "You have killed me" video it features the same Italian host introducing Morrissey in a very bright and garish studio. This follows on from the Eurovision chic of the previous video. It's a shame they didn't see this through with the other singles as it would have given a great cohesion to the videos as well as a wry aesthetic narrative. His videos are so often bland. A good idea should be seized upon.