In March 2020, Morrissey released his thirteenth studio album 'I Am Not A Dog On A Chain' through BMG Rights Management, but eight months later he was dropped by BMG following the appointment of a new executive at the label. Morrissey then announced his intention to sell his next completed album to "the highest (or the lowest) bidder", although on 29 October 2022 he signed with Capitol Records in the United States. He didn't sign with a UK label, but as part of his deal with the US label, Capitol also acquired the rights to reissue his previous solo albums 'Southpaw Grammar', 'You Are The Quarry', 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors', 'Years Of Refusal' and' World Peace Is None Of Your Business'. During 2020 and 2021 Morrisey recorded an album's worth of songs with producer Andrew Watt, featuring a number of guest appearances from various musicians, such as Iggy Pop, Jesse Tobias, Chad Smith, Flea and Josh Klinghoffer. In 2020, American singer Miley Cyrus recorded backing vocals for the song 'I Am Veronica', after admitting to being a long-time admirer of him and The Smiths. She volunteered to provide her vocals for the song, and later offered to appear in a music video for the song, but after Morrissey's departure from Capitol Records in December 2022, he reported that Cyrus had requested to have her backing vocals removed from the song. The reason for this remains a mystery, although there are rumours that Cyrus disagreed with Morrissey's political views, or that there was a clash with Cyrus's inner circle.
'Bonfire Of Teenagers' was originally announced in May 2021, and given a tentative release date of February 2023 in the United States by Capitol Records, but was postponed and later shelved following Morrissey's departure from Capitol in December of that year. In February 2023, Morrissey confirmed that Capitol would not release 'Bonfire Of Teenagers' but would still hold onto the rights to it, and although he later said that he'd regained the rights to the record, it currently remains unreleased. Morrissey debuted several new songs from the album live during his tours in 2022, such as 'I Am Veronica' in May 2022, and the songs 'Rebels Without Applause', 'Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings', 'I Live In Oblivion', and the title track, which were first performed at his Las Vegas concert residency on 1 July 2022. On 25 November 2022, 'Rebels Without Applause' was released as the first single from the album, and he performed 'Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings' on Fox5NY, so with those other live tracks we have access to two thirds of the songs from the record. By adding three live recordings of songs from the similarly unreleased 2023 album 'Without Music The World Dies' to replace the missing tracks from 'Bonfire Of Teenagers', we end up with an excellent collection of new music from the ex-Smiths singer.
Track listing
01 I Am Veronica
02 Rebels Without Applause
03 Kerouac's Crack
04 Without Music The World Dies
05 I Live In Oblivion
06 Bonfire Of Teenagers
07 Notre Dame
08 The Night Pop Dropped
09 Sure Enough, The Telephone Rings
10 Saint In A Stained Glass Window
