You Are the Quarry

1	America Is Not the World / Morrissey 4:03
2	Irish Blood, English Heart / Morrissey 2:37
3	I Have Forgiven Jesus / Morrissey 3:41
4	Come Back to Camden / Morrissey 4:14
5	I'm Not Sorry / Morrissey 4:41
6	The World Is Full of Crashing Bores / Morrissey 3:51
7	How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel? / Morrissey 3:25
8	First of the Gang to Die / Morrissey 3:38
9	Let Me Kiss You / Morrissey 3:30
10	All the Lazy Dykes / Morrissey 3:31
11	I Like You / Morrissey 4:11
12	You Know I Couldn't Last / Morrissey 5:51

Barnes & Noble

Morrissey has been biting his tongue for the past seven years -- You Are the Quarry is his first new disc since 1997's Maladjusted -- so you know he's got plenty of bile to spit out on this long-awaited, rock-centric album. He sounds renewed and revitalized on what can only be described as a kinetic comeback. As always, his clever wordplay and swooning songs coat the bitter pill, as does the amped-up, guitar-centric production from Jerry Finn (Blink 182, Green Day). Morrissey's as acerbic as ever when lashing out at his new home ("America / Your head's too big," he begins his tirade on the elegiac "America Is Not the World," before concluding "I love you"), as he is when lashing out against his native land ("I've been dreaming of a time when / To be English / Is not to be baneful / To be standing by the flag not feeling / Shameful, racist or partial," he laments atop a mountain of careening guitars on "Irish Blood, English Heart"). No surprise to fans of the Mozzer, the disc is chock-full of lines to pore over (have fun with "I Have Forgiven Jesus"), but it's also musically diverse enough to sustain interest without the lyric booklet. He sketches a contemplative tone on "Come Back to Camden," couched in nimble piano and billowing strings, and on the swooning almost-love song "Let Me Kiss You," gilded by a gorgeous vocal refrain. Ringing guitars echo his anger on "How Can Anybody Possibly Know how I Feel?," and "You Know I Couldn't Last" alternates delicate moments with glammy power chords and pounding drums. While a few production flourishes detract from Moz's singular vision (did "I'm Not Sorry" really need that flute bit?), the crunchy guitars and towering sonics largely serve a songwriter and singer who continues to astound, confound, and resound with the truth of the maladjusted loner's life. Lydia Vanderloo

Rolling Stone

1/2 The songs are top-shelf.... You Are the Quarry is a triumph of maladjusted vitality. James Hunter

Entertainment Weekly

A set of irresistible tracks both danceable and desolate. (A) Holly George-Warren