Morrissey// Years Of Refusal// Polydor/Decca// 23/02/09

Finally, after a series of false starts, and phantom release dates, indie icon Morrissey's latest offspring is upon us in the form of Years Of Refusal, his ninth studio album, his second, and sadly final, album recorded with the late punk pop mastermind producer Jerry Finn, also producer of his last great album You Are The Quarry. And worth the wait it most definitely is.

Fighting back against the mixed reception of previous release Ringleader Of The Tormentors, Morrissey finds himself willing to eek further more of himself into the public eye this time around, against a harder backdrop, with a few surprisingly Mexican flourishes, most notably in ‘When Last I Spoke To Carol’, and ‘One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell’.

From the offset it seems the singer is ready to be a little more personal with this bile filled homage to anti-depressant medication ‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’, a theme which seems to follow throughout, as the album covers, in typical Morrissey fashion, suicide, rejection and never wavering arrogance. But it is possibly in the second half of the album that an even more personal message is revealed, as the singer seems to hint that his time in the music industry may be coming to a close, ‘One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell’ indicates this initially, with the obvious title reference and the line ‘so grab me whilst we still have the time’, but also rather more obscurely in the song ‘You Were Good In Your Time’ as Morrissey appears to take the side of his harshest critics who claim that, although once he was the voice of a generation, he is no longer relevant, an opinion that he seems scarily ready to accept might hold some weight. If this does turn out to be the full stop to Morrissey’s solo career, he leaves it with the statement he has surely been trying to word to the world for the past twenty five years, that regardless of everything ‘I’m OK By Myself’.

Whether or not this does turn out to be Moz’s swansong, it cannot be denied that the man is on top of his game, back to his solo best on Years Of Refusal, right down to the talking point artwork, pictured holding a baby, with a caesarean section scar on his wrist. Classic.