ARTIST: Morrissey
TITLE: Ringleader Of The Tormentors
LABEL: Attack / Sanctuary
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 229kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 49min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-04-03
RIP DATE: 2006-03-14

Track List

01. I Will See You In Far Off       4:13
Places
02. Dear God Please Help Me         5:51
03. You Have Killed Me              3:08
04. The Youngest Was The Most       2:59
Loved
05. In The Future When Alls Well    3:54
06. The Father Who Must Be Killed   3:53
07. Life Is A Pigsty                7:22
08. Ill Never Be Anybodys Hero Now  4:14
09. On The Streets I Ran            3:51
10. To Me You Are A Work Of Art     4:02
11. I Just Want To See The Boy      2:59
Happy
12. At Last I Am Born               3:33

Release Notes:

When we first met Morrissey in 1983 he asked the question, “Does the body rule
the mind, or does the mind rule the body?” (‘Still Ill’, The Smith), accompanied
by the deadpan rejoinder, “I dunno.” Even then, however, it was clear which had
the upper hand in the singer’s case. Morrissey was, and has subsequently proved
to be, a strictly cerebral soul.

It is surprising, therefore, to hear him declaim, a short way into this his 8th
solo record, “There are explosive kegs between my legs.. Actually, it isn’t just
surprising; it is positively shocking. All that time with so little to report on
the old S.E.X. front, and now this!? Of course, with Morrissey, he sings this
bawdy refrain with all the tenderness he once brought to the lines “Some girls
are bigger than others,” which, almost 20 years ago, managed to be
heartbreakingly profound at the same time as being killingly funny. So it is
here.

How refreshing it is to have Morrissey singing about you-know-what at last! Here
we are in an industry named for a sexual metaphor (rock’n’roll), and yet we have
to wait for Morrissey to get down to the real nitty gritty (to use another one).
Awash, as we are, with songs about doing it, it is hard to recall another song
or singer who has dared to talk so baldly about sexual longing. (There may be
some hair metal on the subject, but if there is it cannot have the impact of
this simple line so sweetly sung).

And there’s more. Later in the same song (‘Dear God Please Help Me’), we hear,
“Now I’m spreading your legs, with mine in between.” Again, this is what happens
between consenting adults all the time – or so they assure me - but have you
ever heard anyone else sing about it so, um, graphically? Me either. And, once
heard, it is so thrillingly frank and open that you wonder why others ever
bother beating about the bush.

Elsewhere, on first single, ‘You Have Killed Me’ - which despite the spin of the
title is one of the most positive and uplifting things Morrissey has done - we
learn, “I entered nothing, and nothing entered me, ‘til you came, with the key.”
Gadzooks! It surely trumps the usual mechanical lyrical demurring about buttons
being pushed, or fires being lit.

Ringleader of the Tormentors – which those who have heard it are identifying as
one of his greatest recording achievements - is a record of a different
complexion than all previous Morrissey records. It seems somehow suffused with a
new confidence and, dare one venture, happiness? Time was when we scanned the
obits for Morrissey’s imminent demise – he probably did too. Indeed, going back
to ‘Still Ill’ and all the way through to 2004’s You Are the Quarry, Morrissey
resolutely hung around the cemetery gates, it being only a matter of time, and a
blissful release when it comes.

Now, at the end of ‘On the Streets I Ran’, recalling a past of “turning sickness
into popular song,” we find Morrissey saying hang on a minute, I might not be
done yet, surely it must be someone else’s turn first?: “The infirm, the
newborn, the stillborn, take people from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, take anyone,
just spare me!” Could it be Morrissey finally found a reason?

Ringleader of the Tormentors is a savagely alive record. Recorded at Forum Music
Village in Rome with long-term hero Tony Visconti (who produced favorite records
for T-Rex and David Bowie, during their most creative periods of the 60’s and
70s), the album positively crackles with fire. It is, for instance, a far more
direct and rocking record than …Quarry, which aside from ‘Irish Blood, English
Heart’, was a self-consciously beautiful, and largely symphonic, record.

Here, the music punches its full weight, beginning with the loud and glammy ‘I
Will See You in Far Off Places’. Slightly Bedouin in its complex and heavy
musical undertow, the song teeters on the verge of being sonically terrifying,
and is the first indication that Ringleader of the Tormentors is the most
musically disturbing record Morrissey has made since The Smiths second album,
Meat is Murder.

This feeling of unease and of Morrissey returning to the bleak environs of his
greatest early work occurs again and again throughout the album, whether on the
scene of domestic hell played out in ‘The Father Who Must Be Killed’ (clue:
he is), or in the queasy children’s choir intoning “There is no such thing in
life as normal.” on sure-fire future single ‘The Youngest Was the Most Loved’,
which details the early years of a psychopath.

And then, right in the middle, to put the tin-lid on the darkness that lies at
the centre of this “happy” Morrissey record, ‘Life is a Pigsty’; seven minutes
in four blighted movements building towards a final, epic and unforeseen conclusion
of 11th hour redemption. OK, it’s not that happy, but it sure is both powerful
and moving.

Throughout the album the lyrics have swapped some of the piss-and-vinegar that
characterized …Quarry (the lock-jawed pop stars thicker than pig shit, uniformed
goons, etc), for a real emotional generosity. ‘I Just Want to See the Boy Happy’
does what it says on the tin over a delicious horn-led glam rock racket. ‘To Me You
Are a Work of Art’ may contain the classic Morrissey couplet, “I see the world,
it makes me puke,” but is essentially a paean to a rare diamond in the soggy mire.

Right at the close we get ‘At Last I Am Born’, a self-evident proclamation of the
changes that have been wrought throughout this extraordinary album and, presumably,
Morrissey’s life, set to a melodramatic marching rhythm and Duane Eddy guitar. “I
once thought that I, had numerous reasons to cry, and I did, but I don’t anymore,
because I am born.” and “I once was a mess of guilt because of the flesh.” It’s a
personal and professional triumph, which brings us back to…

‘Dear God Please Help Me’. Orchestrated by Ennio Morricone (who has over the years
made much of his significant work at Forum Music Village), this beautiful song, which
for the most part simply describes walking through Rome with an unfettered heart,
is almost sanctified in its atmosphere. Yes, the lyrical content is
frank-bordering-on-prurient, and yet over its six rousing minutes the song swells
to almost hymnal proportions, until you feel that, for all his supposed remove from
the human race, few people can deliver a universal emotional message with more
power than Morrissey.

So, Ringleader of the Tormentors: at least two actual deaths, a fair few metaphorical
ones, the odd petite mort, even, but overall an edifying and uplifting experience.
Hail Morrissey, the new Roman emperor!