''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' is the eighth studio album by English

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

singer

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey ( ; born 22 May 1959), known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 198 ...

. It was released on 3 April 2006 by record label Attack. The album was described as showcasing "a thicker, more rock-driven sound", which Morrissey attributed to new guitarist

Jesse Tobias Jesse Tobias (born April 1, 1972) is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist and co-writer for Morrissey since 2004. Tobias first gained fame during a brief tenure with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1993, although he was replaced b ...

. The album debuted at number 1 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

and number 27 in the US, and also reached number 1 in Sweden, Malta, and Greece.

Recording and production

Recording for the album commenced in late August 2005 in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Italy. Mixing began in late October 2005. Originally Morrissey was to record the album with producer Jeff Saltzman, however, he could not undertake the project. Producer

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

, of T. Rex and

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

fame, took over the production role and Morrissey announced that ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' is to be "the most beautiful—perhaps the most gentle—so far". Visconti wrote on his website: The musicians recording with Morrissey in Rome were

Alain Whyte Alain Gordon Whyte (pronounced Alan) (born 3 July 1967) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and singer. He was Morrissey's main songwriting partner and guitarist between 1991 and 2007. Prior to 1991, Whyte previously been in the band ...

Boz Boorer Martin James "Boz" Boorer (born 19 May 1962 in Edgware, Middlesex, England) is an English guitarist and producer. He founded the new wave rockabilly group the Polecats, and starting in 1991 had a 30-year collaboration with singer Morrissey as c ...

, Gary Day, Michael Farrell and

Matt Chamberlain Matthew Chamberlain (born April 17, 1967) is an American session drummer, record producer and songwriter. He has played with various artists, including Pearl Jam, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, David Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey, The Wallflow ...

. Chamberlain replaced

Dean Butterworth Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean * Dean Sw ...

, who decided to continue drumming for the band

Good Charlotte Good Charlotte is an American rock band formed in Waldorf, Maryland, in 1995. Since 2005, the band's lineup has consisted of Joel Madden (lead vocals), Benji Madden (guitar, vocals), Paul Thomas (bass), Billy Martin (guitar, keyboards), and ...

. Marco Origel, from the San Francisco area, handled

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

on the album.

Release

The album's opening track, "I Will See You in Far-off Places", was leaked on the internet on 2 February 2006. "In the Future When All's Well" received some airplay in the United States on

radio. ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' was released on 3 April 2006. It became Morrissey's third number 1 album on the

, selling 62,000 copies in its first week of release in the UK. It was also the first British album charting to include download sales, 1,200 of which were full album downloads of ''Ringleader of the Tormentors''. The album peaked in its debut week at number 27 on the ''Billboard 200'' in the U.S., and according to Nielsen SoundScan, has sold 98,000 in the U.S. as of August 2008.

Reception

''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' received positive reviews from most critics. According to critic review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album received an average review score of 75/100, based on 34 critical reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Andy Gill of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' wrote "Musically, it's both tougher and lusher than ''You Are the Quarry'', with proper orchestrations replacing that album's nasty synthetic strings."

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

wrote "it's easy to enjoy ''Ringleader of the Tormentors'' as merely an everyday Morrissey record, but it's hard not to shake the suspicion that this album is the closest he's ever been to forgettable."

Track listing

Personnel

– vocals *

– guitar, backing vocals *

– guitar *

– guitar * Gary Day – bass guitar *

– drums * Michael Farrell – piano, organ, keyboards, trumpet, trombone, percussion Additional personnel *

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

– string arrangement on "Dear God Please Help Me" Children's choir on "The Youngest Was the Most Loved", "The Father Who Must Be Killed" and "At Last I Am Born" * Laura Adriani * Gaia e Andrea Baroni * Niccolo Centioni * Julia D'Andrea * Alice e Ester Diodovich * Marco Lorecchio * Charlotte Patrignani

Charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

* {{Authority control Morrissey albums Albums produced by Tony Visconti 2006 albums Sanctuary Records albums