MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: MORRISSEY - THIS IS MORRISSEY

Morrissey in North America remains an acquired taste, and polarizing. You either revere him, hate him, or have never heard of him. In the U.K., he's royalty, which explains the constant flow of best-of's and catalogue reworking. This one's an odd duck, but of course so is he, which means he probably picked the tracks himself.

It leans almost completely on earlier solo works, late '80's to mid-'90's, and largely on non-album singles and b-sides (Jack the Ripper, Have-A-Go Merchant). That might make sense if they were rare, but they've been on some of the various collections over the years. And why nothing later? There's one lone album cut, but again, it's older, from 1991's Kill Uncle album, The Harsh Truth of the Camera Eye. And it's not a very good one at that, rather dull and whiny. The A-sides are uniformly excellent, especially The Last of the International Playboys and Ouija Board, Ouija Board. But trying to include rarer tracks, two better singles Suedehead and You're The One For Me, Fatty are diluted by alternative takes. The former is a remix by Sparks which will attract some buyers, as it does not appear on any other albums, while Fatty is taken from the Beethoven Was Deaf live album. One other live track, another non-album track and the only modern cut here, is Morrissey's cover of the Lou Reed classic Satellite Of Love, marking its first album appearance.

So it's a strange collection, sometimes exciting, other times dull, even frustrating, and a tough listen, with the mood never settling between the peaks and valleys. And just 10 cuts? Morrissey is hardly concerned with modesty. Confusion has always been one of his tactics, and I'm not sure whether this is aimed at the completist fan, or the rookie.