★★★☆☆
One of the more remarkable developments of 21st-century life is that Morrissey, the thoroughly English former leader of the Smiths, brilliantly gloomy lyricist and winner of a Bad Sex in Fiction award for his unreadable novel List of the Lost, has become a god in Mexico. Perhaps they find something familiar in the florid way in which he expresses tragic sentiments.
The next logical step is No Manchester, an album of Mozza’s solo material sung in Spanish and given a Latin makeover by Mexrissey, a group from Mexico City. The glorious misery of Everyday is Like Sunday shines out with the help of Spanish brass, and it would be amiss not to reinvent Mexico, Morrissey’s ode to the country where love for him has never been greater, as a traditional folk tune.
The concept stretches thin over an entire album, which explains why the second half features live versions of songs that are on the first half. Yet as a celebration of the man whose music has all the irony, camp humour, Catholic guilt and, most importantly, melancholic drama of a top-rating telenovela, this is hard to beat. (Cooking Vinyl)