The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores

You are the Quarry had to serve many masters. As an album it had to re-establish Morrissey as a viable commercial force, clamour back some critical standing that had cooled since his last few albums had bombed and in general had to showcase his many virtues. Seven years is a long time to be away but it acted as a cessation of hostilities, letting the Morrissey myth shape itself into something romantic. This wasn't the man who had lost his way and then simply faded. This was the Eleventh Hour comeback and damned if anything was going to upset this plan.

So on the album we have most sides of the artist. Social observer, check, lovelorn romantic, check, censor baiting iconoclast, check but in this song we have the humorist of old, the misanthrope whose disdain for the people of the world masks a even deeper appreciation of them as a collective muse. There's no denying most people probably bore the life out of Moz but where would he be without them to rail against, to deconstruct. The song seems to indicate that Morrissey is himself trapped by the very same ideals of these crashing bores.

Due to some legal wrangling, not worth getting into here, concerning his former band mate Mike Joyce, Morrissey has had angry things to say in regards to public servants but these slights come across as petulant and have become a bit tedious. You have authority issues. I get it. So does every sullen teen in the world. This constant lamenting of policemen and judges and so on is a wearying trend in his later work and while the criticism he faced in court was a bitter pill no doubt, his riposte via song has been made. Maybe its time to move on to newer areas.

This song doesn't fall prey to tedium by its sheer craft. From a boy who never grew up to straining at the edges of ones mind the song encompasses myriad themes while never straying from its comical, if entirely plausible claim that yes this world is full of dullards. The love-lessness is back on show with the lines "no one ever turns to me to say, take me in your arms and love me." The more doomy of romantics listening (which I am regrettably one, especially when just shy of my teenage years which I was when this was released) can probably sink into this line as we have a million times over with different Morrissey lyrics, but I found it comforting in a darkly humorous way that there he was still lamenting the same old concerns. The crashingly boring world continues to turn despite his bad fortune.

It is meticulously structured, the music simmering in the background never vying for attention from what is a wonderful central vocal performance. And that is definitely what this song is, an assured performance from an old hand, who knows his audience, knows his work and is giving us all a splendid encore. Some people might complain we've heard it all before, and yes we have but when it's this effortless and this much fun to whinge then I say keep it coming. When he sings the simple words "Would you do, would you do, what you should do..." it breaks my heart even as elsewhere the song gives me a wry smile. He wants a simple gesture, to validate his own existence amidst the banality. Would someone just hug the man right now? A song for a bad or cynical day, somewhere for the unfocused anger and mild stirrings of ennui to go.