User Score
7.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 57 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 57
  2. Negative: 9 out of 57
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  1. Jul 17, 2014
    4
    I am a long standing {suffering?!} Smiths/Morrissey fan, so it pains me to say it, but I've just about given up on him. This is yet another underwhelming album, with very few memorable songs. To be fair, he is in fine voice, possibly never better, and he has attempted to experiment more {though I like the rockier sound he's known for}. The end result though, is a bunch of songs thatI am a long standing {suffering?!} Smiths/Morrissey fan, so it pains me to say it, but I've just about given up on him. This is yet another underwhelming album, with very few memorable songs. To be fair, he is in fine voice, possibly never better, and he has attempted to experiment more {though I like the rockier sound he's known for}. The end result though, is a bunch of songs that outstay their welcome long before the end. Expand
  2. Jul 19, 2014
    4
    Another disappointing offering from 'The Pope Of Mope'. I was hoping that this album would improve with repeated listenings but sadly it doesn't . Musically and lyrically it's all over the place, and some of the lyrics are just plain awful.
  3. Jul 22, 2014
    6
    From a distance , it sounds better musically than his last 2 efforts but upon closer inspection the lyrics are just plain awful. Lazy rhymes, lack of wit and ideas. First time the music is better than the lyrics for Moz….Still waiting for a full Rockabilly type album in the line of the Loop and Pregnant for the last time….
  4. Aug 13, 2014
    6
    its an album that has thankfully bettered the previous album Years of Refusal, and definitely his many predeceasing albums before that, but what I think has made this his true best album since probably Vauxhall & I is probably the fact he's finally come out this (and pardon me saying) self indulgent way of writing lyrics. On albums such as You Are The Quarry, he makes sure his lyrics areits an album that has thankfully bettered the previous album Years of Refusal, and definitely his many predeceasing albums before that, but what I think has made this his true best album since probably Vauxhall & I is probably the fact he's finally come out this (and pardon me saying) self indulgent way of writing lyrics. On albums such as You Are The Quarry, he makes sure his lyrics are as aggressive and obnoxious as possible, or at least they act like it. It is on albums like that, that his angered lyrical concepts become tiresome and uninteresting to the point of stopping the album barely half way through. World Peace.. makes sure it doesn't leave its messages behind, but there is something else here as well that sees both Morrissey's music and lyrics fresh, refined and new. His head is almost empty of the clutter and instead treads to simple, less rant more kind of pondering styles of lyricism. He treads other topics as well (that means, no war, royalty, war, vegetarianism etc) , some simple and passive as anything he's written in a very long while. The album is enjoyable, and though with its fair amount of filler is otherwise one to keep near by for end of year lists. Expand
Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 37
  2. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. Aug 12, 2014
    80
    By and large, the more substantial the lyric the more layered and complex the musical arrangement.
  2. Magnet
    Aug 6, 2014
    60
    The good (and bad) news for people who love bad (and good) news: Both groups will be delighted and appalled by this record. [No. 112, p.51]
  3. Jul 24, 2014
    40
    The biggest problem is Morrissey himself, who sounds like he’s trying to be clever rather than actually demonstrating that infamously razor-sharp wit.