Morrissey – Something is Squeezing My Skull
You just can’t turn down the cleverness of a good Morrissey lyric. The man has honed his craft into a fine engine that continues to churn verses such as, “I’m doing very well/I can black out the present and the past now/I know by now you think I should have straightened myself out/Thank you, drop dead.” That’s Morrissey for you and you can’t ask him to change what has made his work so appealing to so many.
“Something is Squeezing My Skull” won’t garner a new audience…and that’s a shame. The defiant hook, lead by guitar, isn’t extraordinarily special or updated but the lyrics are just as good as they were back when he was leading The Smiths through the 80s – maybe better. Is there something new or distinctive about this song from previous ones? No. Not at all and nor does it matter or does Morrissey care. It’s kind of the point of the song.
It’s true that Morrissey’s voice has lost the luster of his youth but it also complements the life of a man who has been around the block and then some. He repeatedly pleads through the last verse, “Don’t give me anymore,” after unleashing a litany of drugs used to treat manic depression and anxiety and if this is what the “modern world” has done to this poor man, imagine what it will do to a new generation of musicians and songwriters Morrissey has inspired.
“Something is Squeezing My Skull” is from Morrissey’s latest, Years of Refusal, released in February.
By Carlos Detres
