The solo career of Stephen Patrick Morrissey may be rock and roll's best example of the unfortunate effect the shadow of past success can have on new material. After splitting up the massively influential Smiths in 1987, Morrissey spent many times more that band's brief lifespan trying to meet the inflated expectations of fans and critics with little success, despite a trio of strong releases in Viva Hate, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I.
Ironically, his late 90s plunge into obscurity following the much-maligned Maladjusted\ seems to have been the key to forcing life back into his solo career, the question of whether Morrissey might be finished for good making 2004's impressive You Are The Quarry all the more surprising because of it. Unfortunately, while Quarry's success drew more favor than he had in years and jumpstarted his productivity; it also left him with a familiar problem—the pressure of high expectations.
Fortunately, Morrissey seems to be better equipped to meet them this time around. The swell of hype preceding Ringleader of the Tormentors might have killed the album if not for the fact that England's most contradictory musical celebrity has stocked his newest with enough intelligent pop to, if not mark a new highpoint in his solo career, at least score one more success for his comeback.
Like Quarry, the bulk of Ringleader's track listing is filled out with slickly produced, tightly written guitar-pop numbers. However, where sticking closely to this formula on Quarry produced some of the album's strongest tracks, including ""Let Me Kiss You"" and ""First of the Gang to Die,"" trying for a repeat of the same tactic on Ringleader yields mostly forgettable, if well-executed results. Melodies don't quite stick and the hooks seem undersized. First single ""You Have Killed Me"" is an exception to this rule, pounding along as well as any of Quarry's rockers. Even better, though, is ""In the Future When All is Well,"" which houses Morrissey's best melody in a decade and seems tailor-made to be the follow-up single.
Where Ringleader really puts distance between itself and its predecessor is in Morrissey's willingness to push the songwriting beyond his three-minute pop comfort zone, by doing so turning out some of the disc's most memorable tracks. The epic seven-minute ""Life is a Pigsty"" stretches out across the middle of the album with a haunting vocal track and a rainstorm backdrop that would seem campy and excessive if not for the segue into thunderous percussion rolls. The Ennio Morricone co-written ""Dear God Please Help Me"" removes percussion entirely in favor of a slow, understated organ line.
Unfortunately, the latter of these two songs also highlights the fact that although emotive and original, Morrissey's lyrical abilities have lately been inconsistent, to which Ringleader is no exception. ""The Father Who Must Be Killed"" shows no signs of the man who once penned the ingenious ""Cemetery Gates,"" and the testicular reference in ""Dear God Please Help Me"" (""There are exploding kegs between my legs"") appears destined for infamy. Still, the shortfalls of Ringleader are easily overshadowed by its high points, and with the increased frequency of his releases, even a few more inconsistent records will soon turn out enough gems to fill a new ""Best Of"" collection.
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