Morrissey - California Son

Pitchfork 59

Morrissey and some (barely audible) high-profile guests rework 12 of his favorite ’60s and ’70s songs by American artists to mixed results.

The Guardian 20

(BMG)

A week after Morrissey appeared on a late-night talk show wearing a badge in support of an anti-Islam, far-right minor political party (not to mention the preceding decade of contentious proclamations), it is impossible to hear a number of the covers on California Son in anything but a chilling light. Dylan’s Only a Pawn in Their Game, about the US government’s weaponising of poor white people in the civil rights movement, takes on a sinister tone. When Morrissey sings “You can do what’s right or you can do what you are told,” on Days of Decision, it resonates less as Phil Ochs’s original appeal to fairness than a slimy warning against falling in line with political correctness.

Related: World's oldest record store bans Morrissey sales over far-right support