Morrissey has been painted as a few unpleasant things in his time – Nazi, control freak, skinhead-appeaser, reggae-hater, sanctimonious vegetarian… Now he’s really gone potty, if the cover for his new album Years Of Refusal is to believed.
What, pray, is that on Morrissey’s arm? The result of a chip pan accident? A vicious assault from Tim Jonze’s biro or Andy Rourke’s voodoo doll? A cheap, ill-conceived tattoo done in Camden after one of Moz’ nights out in the Edinburgh Castle? More disturbing, though, is the baby that he’s holding. Whose is it, for a start? Ponder that, and look at the baby’s forehead. We’ve only got a Photoshop-defying low-res version to examine, but what on earth are those lumps and bumps, arranged in a suspicious pattern? Might not they be a pentagram carved into the poor mite’s perplexed noggin? People should be told.
And, most importantly, will this join the pantheon of controversial and ill-thought out album sleeves ever, as explored by The Quietus earlier this year?
