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Morrissey's non-album material has traditionally been impeccable, but Swords is not complete in terms of extra material from the past decade. Nevertheless, taken only as a somehwat arbitrary collection of songs, Swords still excels.
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Q MagazineIt's almost worth it for the titles alone. [Dec 2009, p. 136]
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FilterIt's obvious that great pains were taken with the sequencing--starting with the exuberant "Good Looking Man About Town," winding down with Morrissey's twist on Bowie's nostalgic "Drive-In Saturday, " and trailing off with the resigned ode "Because of My Poor Education." The artistry alone is worth the purchase. [Holiday 2009, p.91]
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Guilty as charged, then: I’ll gladly let Moz, my all-too-human co-pilot, do my thinking for me.
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Yet as good as Morrissey’s throwaways can be, they aren’t all good. Many of the tracks on Swords feel like one more drag through the usual obsessions with crime ('Ganglord'), bad education ('Children In Pieces'), and wilting virgins ('The Never-Played Symphonies'). But the standouts deserve to be rescued from obscurity.
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From the range of production styles to the bonus disc of live tracks, Swords is a welcome catalog addition
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Certainly on this album class is more straightforward.
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Uneasy expressions or not, Swords will slay if given the chance.
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While a large proportion of these Swords are decidedly blunt blades, a few could have easily found a place on a greatest hits.
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MojoThe themes are familiar, yet still captivating, as rock's most misanthropic man sings about a world of emotional retardation and alienation. [Dec 2009, p.111]
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Nothing here is quite an embarrassment, but compared to his other albums of this nature, including the muddled World of Morrissey, there's a distinct lack of humor and hooks, or anything else memorable.
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You see, as Swords, mopping up of the stray B-sides and bonus tracks from the comeback years, suggests, Morrissey now has a dilemma: Following group glory, solo vindication, political notoriety, sullen exile, and dramatic revival, what on earth does he do for an encore?
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Considering the quality of the singles drawn from "You Are the Quarry," "Ringleader of the Tormentors," and "Years of Refusal," it's an utter disappointment that Swords, the collection of B-sides from those singles, is so uneven.
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Under The RadarMost of what's here are, predictably, mid-tempo mopers, as opposed to the more agressive, distorted side that's driven some of his best work this decade. [Holiday 2009, p.80]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 16
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Mixed: 3 out of 16
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Negative: 1 out of 16
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Aug 26, 2014
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Jul 31, 2014
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Nov 23, 2013