MORRISSEY FEELS HOPEFUL

SOME 35 years after Steven Patrick Morrissey burst on to the scene in the music-changing Smiths, he continues his one-man mission to fly the flag for the socially awkward.

Now 58, he still rails against police, politicans, royalty and the media.

His 11th solo album Low in High School is released today and fizzes with the kind of rage sadly missing from your Sheerans, Swifts or Biebers.

Even the title hopes to help the same kind of teenagers who felt in the 80s that The Smiths were the only band speaking to them about their lives.

Morrissey said: “My concern wanders to anyone feeling academically or spiritually low in high school… directionless or hopeless. Can young people ever be carefree again? It’s a question.”

Like many, Morrissey sees a world ripping itself into new, nastier pieces – from Trump in America to Brexit here, his follow-up to 2013’s World Peace is None of Your Business is even more political.

He reckoned: “No small kid wants to grow up to be president any more, and there’s a sense that the world is close to its expiration date. There’s no point hanging back with whatever feelings and views you might have. This is tomorrow.”

The song that best suggests the anarchy the world is facing is Who Will Protect Us From the Police?

Morrissey said: “We see shocking footage of police in Spain, Venezuela, Germany assaulting anyone who is anti-government. We cannot control security forces and this is why societies are shredding everywhere.

“I have experienced it first hand in Italy, and it is the worst form of street crime. The police must answer to the public. If they did, police brutality would end. It is the people who pay their wages.”

Morrissey is clearly feeling angry and this manifests in his most muscular album to date.

The singer clearly sees a change from his last album.

“It’s certainly louder,” he said. “Although people have been trained to not expect very much from modern music, there is, I find, always so much to say.

“The political elite have stopped breathing and the people and politicians are openly in a state of mutual contempt. Translate all of this into great music and life becomes hopeful.” Morrissey plays Glasgow’s SSE Hydro on February 17, 2018 and Aberdeen BHGE Arena on February 16.