News Clue’s In The Name: Morrissey And Other Self-Defining Album Titles

Morrissey recently revealed the title of his next studio album, and it couldn’t be more Morrissey unless it was suddenly retracted, postponed and announced via a 10,000 word post on truetoyou.net.

The title: ‘World Peace Is None Of Your Business’.

It’s a title so Moz-like that they could have used a random-Morrissey-album-name-generator to create it.

But Morrissey knows a thing or two about naming albums. As Elvis Costello once cruelly said: “Morrissey writes wonderful song titles, but sadly he often forgets to write the song.’ There are some titles that simply tell you everything you need to know about that artist, and with this one Morrissey has even outdone ‘Viva Hate’.

Some album titles define acts so neatly and succinctly that you know exactly what to expect musically without even hearing a note. Some capture a moment in time: Public Enemy’s ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’ being a strong example. Some just capture the spirit of that artist: The Rolling Stones’ ‘Get yer Ya-Ya’s Out’, Blur’s ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ and, er, Robbie Williams’ ‘The Ego Has Landed’. And some, unfortunately, are an almost parodied version of what that band represent.

We’ve picked out some album titles that say more about the artist than an in-depth biographical account ever could:

Fiona Apple - ‘When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He’ll Win the Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters the Ring There’s No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You’ll Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won’t Matter, Cuz You Know That You’re Right’

When it was released, this held the world record for longest album title (that title’s since been stolen by Chumbawamba). The title is a poem Apple wrote upon seeing the readers’ letters that appeared in Spin Magazine, after an article painted her in a rather negative light. Wordy, pretentious and actually pretty good: that just about sums Ms Apple up. See also: Sigur Rós ( ) - (at the opposite end of the spectrum)

Limp Bizkit - ‘Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water’

A title so charmless, heavy handed and empty of meaning that it was only matched by the music found on the album itself. Childish references to the anus (Wes Borland has stated that ‘Fred calls himself Chocolate Starfish, because people call him an asshole all the time’) made by someone who always wears their baseball cap backwards, it’s a title so terrible that it ends up more bafflingly bad than offensive. That was nu-metal.

Toby Keith - ‘Shock’n Y’all’

Stereotypically American and a play on the phrase used to describe the initial phase of the war on Iraq you say? It can only be Toby Keith’s brand of patriotic, gun-totin’ country music. He hates the Taliban and he’s written some country ditties to tell everyone that fact. It is Toby Keith being the most Toby Keith-like he could ever be.

Coheed And Cambria - Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness

If there’s one genre where the titles are a guaranteed, immediate giveaway of what type of music lies in store then it’s prog rock. This was like shooting fish in a barrel but we chose this one just because it’s so unashamedly and pretentiously prog rock that it’s glorious. Cape not included.