Morrissey delivers his best music in years

Horan endures a stormy 2nd solo album

MBy Mark Kennedy

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(BMG) Few musical artists would urge listeners to just go ahead and kill themselves already on the very first track of a new album. Morrissey is clearly not your regular artist.

The former frontman for The Smiths flies his misanthropy flag high on “Jim Jim Falls,” but it’s such a good song that you’ll happily bop along as he sings, “If you’re gonna kill yourself/then, to save face - get on with it.”

The 11-track album “I Am Not a Dog on a Chain” easily contains some of Morrissey’s best music in years, a guide into his one-of-a-kind controversial head, but also an album filled with electric and adventurous tracks that often shake his morose stereotype. He was happy to stay in bed for 2017’s “Low in High School,” bit here he is vibrant - welcoming even.

“Congratulations - you have survived,” he sings on the lush and shimmering “Knockabout World.” He later even offers the hearty endorsement “you’re OK by me” on the song. From a noted misanthrope, this is huge.

On his last album of original songs, he famously told us to stop watching the news. This time his weird relationship with the media continues, with the proud boast that he doesn’t read newspapers (“they are trouble makers”) but he still asks if we’d all see the day’s headlines in “Love Is on Its Way Out.”

Morrissey’s animal rights stance is all over the new album, too. “Did you see the sad rich/hunting down, shooting

illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. (AP)

PLAYA CHIQUITA, Panama:

Between 400 and 500 foreigners are stranded in Panama after a “tribal” festival and music event ended with many of them being quarantined at the concert site near the Caribbean beach of Playa Chiquita, an organizer has said. down elephants and lions?” he sings on “Love Is On its Way Out.” On the title track he sings, “Maybe I’ll be skinned alive by Canada Goose because of my views.”

He inserts a sly reference to President Donald Trump and his vice-president on the synth-laden “Once I Saw the River Clean,” singing about “45 pence.” Or maybe we’re reading into it. He even seems to mock himself with the line “I see no point in being nice” on the title track.

The first single - the terrific “Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know?” - is layered with drug references and has backing vocals by R&B pioneer Thelma Houston. The wacky “Darling, I Hug a Pillow” has a Mexican feel and “The Truth About Ruth” has the Spanish guitar.

Morrissey gets proggy and spacey with the almost-8 minute “The Secret of Music,” which is a tour of instruments, from “fat bassoon” to “angelic flute.” It’s terrific, hypnotically weird.

He ends the album with the wistful “My Hurling Days Are Done,” in which he sings with a child’s choir: “Oh time, oh time - no friend of mine.” We disagree: Morrissey’s music is aging nicely.

Horan, (Capitol Records) An anxious Niall Horan appears on the cover of his sophomore solo album. He’s standing on a chair in the middle of a street with a nastylooking thunderstorm brewing behind him. It’s a fittingly awkward image for what turns out is an awkward album.

“Heartbreak Weather” is an overall bright collection from the former One

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At the same time, Panama’s government announced that the number of coronavirus cases in the country had risen to 109 and that a nighttime curfew would be imposed beginning Wednesday night.

James Baker of Manchester, England, said those attending the Tribal Gathering included people from Spain, Canada, the United States, Denmark, France, Britain and Hungary as well as Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile and Mexico.

Baker said authorities in Panama had instituted a requirement that all those seeking

Directioner, but one that doesn’t top his 2017 debut, the nifty “Flicker.” If he was more folky on the last one, here he’s veered back into pop, making 14 perfectly fine tracks, if not volcanic ones.

The half dozen best songs - like the Ed Sheeran-like “No Judgement,” the ’80s-ish title track and the addictive “New Angel” - are diluted by too many that make little impression, especially the softer, quieter songs “Black and White,” “Dear Patience,” “Put a Little Love On Me,” “Still” and “San Francisco.”

The sultry, rocking “Nice to Meet Ya” was a dynamite first single, but its cocky Brit-pop sound isn’t followed through for the rest of “Heartbreak Weather.” Horan’s music doesn’t always reach out and grab you by the throat, so a few listens are often required to release their understated beauty. But more spins don’t always help this time.

Horan has once again written on every track and tapped some top producers - including Greg Kurstin, Teddy Geiger, Julian Bunetta and Scott Harris - for an album in which every song is about a lover or a former one. Horan really only has two speeds on “Heartbreak Weather” - frisky or brokenhearted. “Let’s skip all the small talk and go straight up to your room,” he sings in one song.

On another he’s down and haunted: “I try to run, but you’re everywhere I go.”

“Heartbreak Weather” is in no way a disaster like the one approaching Horan on the album cover. It’s just not an improvement on his debut effort. Not to worry, the storm will pass. Also, pro tip: Avoid wearing white pants in a squall. (AP)

to leave had to prove they had been in Panama for at least 14 days. Most of the estimated 2,300 attendees at the event, which ran Feb 29-March 15, have been able to leave.

But Baker said many of the remaining festival goers and staff might need help getting back to their home countries due to flight and transport cancellations related to the coronavirus outbreak.

Baker said the group had tents, medial support and food for about a month.

“The mood is generally good, a lot of people do obviously want to go home, so again, it’s about getting the help from the authorities so they can be taken back home as quickly and safely as possible,” he said.

Baker said two people who had fevers at the festival tested negative for coronavirus.

“What we’re telling people to do is get in touch with their embassies to get their help, like we say, we need and request the help of all authorities and embassies,” Baker said. “To date, we’ve had very limited help from them. To date, there’s not been the help with the cost of buses, there’s not been the help with flying and food and those kind of things.”

Government officials reported late in the day that Panama had 109 confirmed cases of the virus, including one death.

President Laurentino Cortizo then decreed a countrywide curfew starting Wednesday night, requiring nearly all Panamanians to stay inside from 9 pm to 5 am.

Excepted are employees working in essential areas such as police and firefighting, hospitals and pharmacies, supermarkets and restaurant delivery, agriculture and food production, hotels and banks, media and telecommunications, and shipping and public transportation. (AP)