Greatest Hits

Greatest Hits review

New Greatest Hits can do Morrissey no harm

A collection of best songs is probably the weirdest phenomenon in music industry. Apart from that fact that it caries some musical value, any collection also serves as a peculiar marker, which may influence the public opinion about the artist. That is, it is not really good if you don't have it because any catalogue of any self-respecting artist should contain at least 10–12 hits. But still it is even worse if you have one collection while your discography contains only two studio albums because you run big chances to be taken as a poseur. Also, there is nothing positive when you have a lot of collections as it speaks about your greediness or that you are staying under a heavy dominion of your label. Luckily, Morrissey's Greatest Hits released this year looks pretty harmless. Firstly, another disk after 20 years of solo career is quite a permissible thing. And secondly, it really seems like Morrissey or to put it more precise his newly born fans do need it. In this century of self-made playlists the only purpose Greatest Hits collection may serve is to acquaint those who had no chance to find anything about the artist with his works.

Greatest Hits includes Morrissey's most popular singles

Approaching his 50, Morrissey enjoys his popularity and universal esteem more than anytime before. The style that he invented somewhere back in the 80's is really a thing in demand today. In fact, the last wave of indie-rock in a general sense is almost obsessed with the legacy of 80's and Morrissey as a leader of alternative movement of those years became a sort of a super-idol for numerous indie fans. His Greatest Hits collection as such includes exactly what it should include – the best songs of Morrissey. A yardstick used to choose appropriate tracks for this compilation was simple but very effective – every song here is a single that was lucky to enter UK Top-20 chart. Mostly, these are compositions from his two recent albums plus some songs from his early records. On one hand such a proportion doesn't look inappropriate. There are few songs to remind you about Morrissey's past glory but generally the compilation is trying to concentrate your attention on his late period and it also gives a perspective of what is going to happen in the future: there are two new songs here That's How People Grow Up and All You Need Is Me.

A record was intended for a new generation of admirers

However, it is quite possible that some of Morrissey's old fans will be displeased with this track selection. Indeed, is it really possible to judge an artist, especially such a cult one like Morrissey, by singles alone? Considering that during his solo career he released eight albums this very compilation could have a little bit more songs from his early records. But, it seems like this collection was intended for a new generation of admirers and casual listeners. And frankly speaking it does make sense – a diehard fan simply needs no greatest hits collection. In reality, such tracks as Every Day Is Like Sunday, Sudehead, The Last Of The Famous International Playboys or The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get give a sufficiently informative picture of Morrissey's artistic past. And those singles from his latest albums depict his new indie-pop image quite well. So, if you never had enough of spare time to get acquainted with Morrissey but you always wanted to do it, than this very compilation was made exactly for you.