California Son
No one’s done more to shape the narrative of Morrissey being a morose misfit from dreary working-class England than Morrissey himself. (Rarely did the sun ever shine in any of his former band The Smiths’ classic \'80s albums.) But the truth is, he\'s lived in Los Angeles on and off for more than 20 years now—and on his last few albums, amid his typically lacerating lyrical barbs (and despite some off-wax political rants that have angered many fans), he has exhibited an increasingly upbeat disposition, relatively speaking. He’s also long been a fan of cover songs. So for his 12th solo LP, and his first composed entirely of tunes written by others, he focuses on music from the \'60s and \'70s that tends to evoke the sunny vibes of his adopted home state. With occasional help from the likes of Petra Haden, Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, and a few other friends, Morrissey reshapes these often subdued songs into opulent affairs, his voice as boisterous and articulated as ever over glossy, modern-feeling production. He comes at \"Morning Starship\" (by one of his idols, the unheralded glam-rock singer Jobriath) with gale force, and turns Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Suffer the Little Children” into a thrumming, rollicking rock song. And he has a great deal of reverence for Joni Mitchell’s dynamic swings and swoops in “Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow.” The album isn’t without camp, mind: The 5th Dimension’s “Wedding Bell Blues,” on which he’s accompanied by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and The Regrettes’ Lydia Night, feels tongue-in-cheek in a way that it probably doesn’t even mean to. Where Morrissey most succeeds here, though, is on the real vocal showcases of the *AM Gold* era, where his torchy croon lights up Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap’s \"Lady Willpower.”
Morrissey and some (barely audible) high-profile guests rework 12 of his favorite ’60s and ’70s songs by American artists to mixed results.
The unofficial line is that Morrissey has recorded a covers album to allow the music to speak for itself. What 'California Son' is saying is that it's not very good
Rolling Stone reviews Morrissey's 'California Son' covers album, which features his take on songs by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and others.
Can we listen to a new album from an old hero who’s broken our hearts? It seems not
Let’s get the trigger warning out of the way: despite being a collection of 12 new cover tracks, "California Son" is still a record by the individual known as Morrissey.
It’s unclear why Morrissey has released these heavy-handed recordings of protest songs, but his motives can’t help but seem suspect
“Some say I got devil / Some say I’m an angel / But I’m just someone in trouble,” croons Morrissey, as if entering the increasingly heated debate about his polarising personality.
These 1960s and 1970s tunes oscillate wildly between schmaltz and soaring balladry