Whenever record companies release the remastered version of an old album, it can seem like a bit of a cash-in. “Reissue, repackage”, etc. As a Music Technology student, I can confirm that “remastering” usually just means “turn it up louder”. Without getting too technical, record producers have been making their music gradually louder over the last thirty-odd years in order to compete with each other. This is why, for example, the original mix of a Metallica song can sound like a roaring beast on its own, but turn into a quiet growling when played next to Katy Perry. Therefore re-releases of albums from 20+ years ago need turning up; no-one really wants to be drowned out by “I Kissed A Girl”.
Usually it doesn’t make much of a difference, but Your Arsenal is one of those albums that desperately needed a bit of beefing up in the sound department. Played next to a modern track on one’s iPod, the original Your Arsenal sounds like Morrissey singing to himself in the next room whilst the band tiptoe around the studio blowing on bits of paper. A touch of 21st-century turd-polishing later, and Moz sounds like the King of Indie, bellowing from his throne. The guitars, originally weak and feeble, seem to have spent the last twenty-two years taking steroids, and the overall experience is all the better for it.
Morrissey has always been controversial. Some people say he is a masterful songwriter with a wicked way with words and a heartfelt voice. The exact same amount of people says “he’s a bit of a knob”. After perfecting the art of ruffling feathers as part of The Smiths, with his outspoken views on animal protectionism and the royal family, he released his most controversial album in 1992 with Your Arsenal. This doesn’t really make sense as he has written much more divisive songs in his career: “Margaret On The Guillotine”, “Meat Is Murder”, and “Asian Rut” are prime examples. The trouble lay- as trouble will- with the NME.
On this album Morrissey wrote several songs in the first person exploring dark themes; “We’ll Let You Know” and “National Front Disco” are insights into football hooligans and nationalists, respectively. The NME, not known for their literary imagination, decided that this must mean that Moz was himself a racist. One wonders whether the NME also thinks that the Harry Potter films are documentaries. Fuelled by their impotent rage, the geriatric magazine cobbled together some self-righteous twaddle, made up a few interview quotes, and before long their backlash completely overshadowed singles such as “Glamorous Glue” and “Certain People I Know”.
Sensationalism aside (well maybe not entirely… this is York Vision, after all), Your Arsenal is an already-great album which has had a much-needed audio makeover. It is required listening for anyone who has run out of Smiths songs to listen to or is a fan of any of Morrissey’s countless frog-voiced carbon copies.
A word of warning, though: it has a song called “You’re The One For Me, Fatty”. Well, nobody’s perfect. Least of all Mozzer.
good article but jesus christ vision, get a sub-editor and sort out your formatting