Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| The Guardian | |
| Mojo | |
| NME | (8/10) |
| The Observer | |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.1/10) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Spin | |
| Uncut | |
On 11 December 2008, Morrissey, along with Polydor president Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, unveiled Years of Refusal in London to a select group of journalists with a special listening of the album at Piccadilly's Pigalle Club. First impressions of the album were universally positive.
Early reviews of the album suggest a return to the form of You Are the Quarry, ClashMusic commenting that it is "in a word, 'brilliant'" and that "it’s hard to listen to this album and not conclude that it’s one of his best as a solo artist".
Pitchfork Media, along with giving the album an 8.1 rating, lauded Years of Refusal highly for its "rejuvenation" of Morrissey:
| “ | Years of Refusal comes as a gratifying shock: It's his most vital, entertaining, and savage record since 1994's Vauxhall and I. Rather than try and reinvent himself, Morrissey has rediscovered himself, finding new potency in his familiar arsenal. Morrissey's rejuvenation is most obvious in the renewed strength of his vocals.
For much of Years of Refusal Morrissey is turning his fire outwards-- taking on lovers, enemies, wannabes, or some combination of all three. This is Morrissey's most venomous, score-settling album, and in a perverse way that makes it his most engaging. |
” |
Spin, having given the album a four star rating, had this to say:
| “ | Ever since You Are the Quarry in ’04, our man from Manchester has been weirdly unstoppable, making vital music, throwing exhaustingly energetic live shows, and honing in on 50 as well as or better than any rocker this side of Neil Young. Produced with you-are-there vigor by the late Jerry Finn, who helmed Quarry, Years of Refusal thunders with noise-rock bass lines, enormous drums, and big swaths of guitar distortion. Though Moz’s vocal range has narrowed with age, he still delivers brilliantly titled odes to depression ("Something Is Squeezing My Skull") and hanging out on his own ("I’m OK By Myself" –do tell). | ” |
Q magazine, who gave the album a three star rating, praised and criticized the album saying:
| “ | Years of Refusal combines the pugnacious swing of You Are the Quarry with the physicality of Ringleader of the Tormentors, an attack on morality and mortality that shows off Morrissey's abundant gifts as much as it shows up his flaws.
So there is that fabulous voice, the felicitous turn of phrase, the ability to hit universal truths that transcend one middle-aged Mancunian's ingrained sense of being hard-done-by -- but there's also too much grudge-bearing, too much self-justification, too much undistinguished guitar thump. |
” |
John Earls of Planet Sound saw the album as a return to form in his 8 out of 10 rating;
| “ | Sauntering back to form after the ho-hum Tormentors, Morrissey's recent muscular rock is at its peak here. From the opening thwack of Skull on, there's a belligerent confidence matched by the taunting lyrics. Amongst the chiding, Paris is romantic, Carol is typically fine melancholia and the shipwrecked coda to Sorry is troubled and unsettling. There's still acres of mystery to uncover here. | ” |
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“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
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