Morrissey has confirmed that he’s recorded a new album called ‘Without Music The World Dies’ and shared its tracklist.
No release date has been confirmed for the new LP, but a post on Morrissey’s website detailed that it was recorded at La Fabrique Studios in St-Remy, France and was produced by longtime collaborator Joe Chiccarelli.
Among its 10-song tracklist are tracks titled ‘Suspicious Minds’, ‘Happy New Tears’, ‘The Night Pop Dropped’ and more.
The blog post includes a quote from co-writer Jesse Tobias, who described the album as “a lightning strike”.
At the end of the album announcement, a notice referenced Morrissey’s recent label troubles, reading: Capitol Records Los Angeles recently terminated their contract with Morrissey, therefore if any record label or private investor has interest in releasing this project, please contact Donnie Knutson.”
See the tracklist for ‘Without Music The World Dies’ below.
1. ‘The Night Pop Dropped’
2. ‘Zoom Zoom The Little Boy’
3. ‘Boulevard’
4. ‘Headache’
5. ‘Without Music the World Dies’
6. ‘Suspicious Minds’
7. ‘Notre-Dame’
8. ‘Many Icebergs Ago’
9. ‘Happy New Tears’
10. ‘The Monsters of Pig Alley’
At the time of the announcement of the new album, Morrissey’s last LP – ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’ – remains unreleased.
In October 2022, Morrissey announced that ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ would be released in 2023 through Capitol. In late December, however, the former Smiths frontman said he had “voluntarily withdrawn from any association with Capitol Records”. He also revealed that Miley Cyrus, who recorded backing vocals for ‘Bonfire’ track ‘I Am Veronica’ in 2020, had asked to have her vocals removed from the song.
Morrissey then released a statement on his website in which it was asserted that, despite Capitol still maintaining ownership of ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’, the label would not release it. It comes after he was dropped by BMG in 2020, months after he released his most recent album, ‘I Am Not A Dog On A Chain’.
In a recent statement, the singer said he’s starting to think that his former label are intentionally “sabotaging” his new album. A statement wrote: “Morrissey has said that although he does not believe that Capitol Records in Los Angeles signed ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ in order to sabotage it, he is quickly coming around to that belief.”
In another criticism of Capitol, Morrissey contrasted Capitol not releasing ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ with its decision to continue publishing Sam Smith‘s records, which Morrissey likened to “satanism”.
“Capitol Records (Los Angeles) proudly promotes Sam Smith’s ‘satanism’; yet they consider the honest truth of Morrissey’s factual ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ to be their biggest threat and they will not release it despite their contractual obligation and promise to do so,” a statement read. NME has reached out to Capitol Records for comment.
The “satanism” that Morrissey is alluding to in his statement is presumably Smith’s recent appearance at the Grammy Awards, where they appeared alongside Kim Petras to perform their Grammy-winning 2022 collaboration ‘Unholy’. During the performance, Smith wore a hat with devilish horns coming out of it, in front of red lighting, pyrotechnics and dancers performing in metal cages.
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