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
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  1. 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]
  2. Jul 23, 2014
    60
    Given the great work apparent on the album’s first half, it’s a pity to see the album slide to a close so disappointingly.
  3. Jul 18, 2014
    60
    Inevitably, the singer’s less appealing views do invade the material.
  4. Jul 16, 2014
    60
    So the bleakly beautiful is still there, but the flashes are sporadic.
  5. 60
    World Peace is an album that rewards patience, and the deeper one goes into it, the more fun there is to be had.
  6. Part of Morrissey’s charm is his resistance to change. Another part is the sick wit that lies behind his vitriol. The titles of his songs alone draw perverse smiles. He may be a pill and a scold, but you can’t deny the guy’s got style.
  7. Jul 9, 2014
    60
    There’s a decidedly different tone to proceedings. World Peace is None of Your Business feels infinitely more concise, and musically more defined.
  8. 60
    World Peace is a frustrating experience, moving too quickly between temperaments and overstaying its welcome by a good 20 minutes.
  9. Jul 14, 2014
    59
    At times the intricate arrangements come across as a means of covering up unmemorable songwriting.
  10. Jul 14, 2014
    58
    Predictably, it’s the riskiest choices that pay the fewest dividends.... Fortunately, the album on the whole has enough of Morrissey’s strengths--the ones he established with Marr and co., first causing NME journos to wet their trousers 30 years ago--to be a mostly serviceable Morrissey album.
  11. Jul 15, 2014
    50
    As Morrissey's ability to deploy his wit and worldliness fades, it's nice to hear him wax romantic, but for the first time on record, he seems more obsessed with others than himself. Sadly, it doesn't suit him well.
  12. Jul 15, 2014
    50
    His social and political views have long been front and center, but never have they been delivered as tritely or in as simplistically sloganeering a manner as they are here.
  13. 42
    The album’s 12 bloated, mostly mid-tempo tracks drone on and on, and even when they aren’t technically long they sometimes feel like they might never end because most of them fail to find a hook.
  14. Jul 15, 2014
    42
    The future is here; love has not brought us together, nor has the bomb. Morrissey, having left himself no other options, makes do with a shrug.
  15. 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.
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
  1. 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 itAnother 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. Full Review »
  2. 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 anotherI 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. Full Review »
  3. Jul 28, 2014
    3
    Dull and underwhelming although histerically busy and all over the place with exactly zero memorable songs that work from start to finish (theDull and underwhelming although histerically busy and all over the place with exactly zero memorable songs that work from start to finish (the closest thing to decent songwriting here is 'Istanbul').And my God those lyrics...so forced,artless and banal-is this the same man once called the greatest living lyricist in pop music?And why on Earth this gay man hates women that much? Anyway,funboys will love it and critic won't give half a bad press deserved because,you know,it's Morrissey but I'm not deaf neither dog from the cover art.He finally turned himself into self-parody. Full Review »