Morrissey's "Years Of Refusal"

When you see song titles like "Something Is Squeezing My Skull" and "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore", it can only be one person. Long titles, whining, and self-pity humor can only mean one thing -Morrissey is back!

After a great run of albums in the early 90s, he disappeared for almost a decade before returning with the excellent You Are The Quarry, which actually went a little under recognized due to the stellar year 2004 was. Now he's given us three albums in five years (prolific for him), and instead of trying anything fancy in production or songwriting this time, he gives us his hardest rock album since Your Arsenal.

They pound through the first few tracks so fast you don't really catch on to the melodies or the lyrics, which has made me want to play this album several times. "I'm Trying To Throw My Arms Around Paris" is the first break from this - this soaring jangle-pop could be one of the year's best singles. He really should have made it last more than two and a half minutes.

The mariachi touches to "When I Last Spoke To Carol" and the dark orchestrations of "You Were Good In Your Time" give the second half a good variety, the later of which goes into a Scott Walker-esque dirge for the last minute (random...). This isn't as strong of an album as his 90s masterpieces Your Arsenal and Vauxhall & I, but it's a great addition to his catalog and probably the most significant release of February.