Vauxhall & I [20th Anniversary Definitive Remastered]

Personnel: Morrissey (vocals); Alain Whyte (guitar, background vocals); Boz Boorer (guitar); Jonny Bridgewood (bass); Woodie Taylor (drums).
Recorded at Abbey Road, London, England in 1993.
VAUXHALL & I opens on the track "Now My Heart is Full," which could seem a stunning revelation from England's most notorious melancholy since Hamlet. It's not an ironic title, but, of course, with Stephen Morrissey, it's never that simple; the elegant song is full of self-deprecatory asides and dark longing, yet is also a warm and loving, lush pop track. Which is to say, it's classic Morrissey. And 1994's VAUXHALL may be the most consistently enjoyable album he put out as a solo artist, with his usual balance of literary neuroses and rapturous hooks, from the driving guitar of "Spring-Heeled Jim" to the studied brooding of "Hold On To Your Friends" to the extra-creepily genial stalking of "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" (which turned out to be his first American chart hit ever, inside or outside the Smiths).