Review Summary: Morrissey warned you: his world's pace is none of your business.
A five-years break hasn't got the best of the Moz, and hasn't kept us away from him. An anti-media-turned-media-darling persona got a good chunk of attention from the ones who cared, and even from the ones who didn't. Reading many interviews published during that gap made eyebrows raised by more than one. Of all reasons explaining his questionable quotes, many were defending two of his most known extra-musical sides: the extreme PETA activist he is and, by extension, his notorious misanthropy. Without a record contract, famous insurances problems to tour South America and well-published health problems, what else has Morrissey got to keep his feet firmly inside your doorway?
His big mouth. And he kept it at striking again.
So much that, for our own good, he keeps doing it on World Peace is None of Your Business, albeit sometimes in a preachy way. But what else could you expect from the Moz? His lyrics were never meant to be seen as subtle, for he is a man of no compromise (“Stand your ground and persist / And be the last one to blink”, from deluxe edition extra track “Forgive Someone”). Either he hates you, loves you, misses you, wants to seduce you or tells you that eating meat is the most obnoxious of all sins according to his own bible, you'll get it right before the first chorus. If there was ever to be some kind of a “middle-zone”, it would be when the Voice of the Miserables turns into a Raconteur de Choix (“Istanbul” (a story about a widowed father searching for his dead son), “Mountjoy” (narrating what life must have looked like inside the old Dublin jail) or “Staircase at the University” (about a girl being put under pressure by her loved ones for “getting three A's”)). Those are, lyrically, true highlights.
Musically is were Moz & Co have shaken things up the most, when comparing to the last three offerings. The title track, which goes first, is miles away from, say, “Something is Squeezing my Skull” off Years of Refusal, another opener. As a whole, this new album may be an end to a chapter, and a beginning of another promising one. Gone is the muscular indie rock (for a lack of a better term) we've been accustomed to since “Irish Blood, English Heart” (or even since Your Arsenal). But World Peace ain't a back-to-the-roots album. Notwithstanding lenghty track “I'm Not a Man” that many linked to Southpaw Grammar, long-time partner in crime Boz Boorer, not-so-new-by-now guitarist Jesse Tobias and keyboardist Gustavo Manzur (who is collaborating for the first time as a songwriter with three titles) have done what's so great about this record: they brought some freshness into the mix. Songs like the aforementioned “Istanbul” (although its first riff and overall mood may seem familiar with Oasis from Be Here Now-era), “Kiss Me a Lot” (one of many songs incorporating Spanish guitar and a G minor ascending/descending scale on trumpet that would make any Barcelonian proud) or “Smiler With Knife” (an acoustic song with surprising stop/start/stop arrangements) could not have appeared on any other Morrissey's album.
Five years may have been what Morrissey needed to get out of the comfort zone he put himself (and us, the listeners) since his first comeback album (2004's You Are The Quarry), and who knows: maybe another five years will be necessary to pursue this new chapter of his career...but he warned you right from the start: his world's pace is none of your business.
