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And Finally Artist News
Morrissey says he believes Capitol may have intentionally sabotaged album release
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 9 February 2023
Morrissey has suggested that Universal Music’s Capitol Records in the US may have signed him to a deal to release new album ‘Bonfire Of The Teenagers’ purely to “sabotage” the record.
A new post on his official website states: “Capitol Records (Los Angeles) will not, after all, release Morrissey’s 2021 album ‘Bonfire Of Teenagers’. At the same time, Capitol Records (Los Angeles) are holding on to the album”.
“Although Morrissey officially signed to Capitol Records, there has been no mention of Morrissey on Capitol’s website or on their artists roster”, it goes on. “Morrissey has said that although he does not believe that Capitol Records in Los Angeles signed ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ in order to sabotage it, he is quickly coming around to that belief”.
The real issue, he claims, is that he is simply “too diverse” for the label. On that theme, yesterday’s post shares an article on Medium by writer Fiona Dodwell making that argument. The thinking is that everyone’s always talking about wanting a diversity of voices in music, but no one is interested in what Moz has to say.
It was announced in October that Morrissey had signed a new deal with Capitol in the US to release ‘Bonfire Of The Teenagers’ this month – although it was stressed that that deal would not cover the UK.
In November an update on Morrissey’s website said that the album release had been placed on hold and what would happen next was “exclusively in the hands of Capitol Records (Los Angeles)”.
Then, just before Christmas, Morrissey’s website announced that he had “voluntarily withdrawn from any association with Capitol Records (Los Angeles)”. It was also revealed that he had parted ways with his management, and that Miley Cyrus had asked for her vocals to be removed from a track on the still unreleased album.
Morrissey, of course, has a bit of a history of falling out with record labels. This isn’t even the first Universal imprint with which he’s ended things on bad terms. He worked with Universal’s Harvest on his 2014 album ‘World Peace Is None Of Your Business’, but they fell out shortly after that record was released and it was withdrawn.
He then managed to release three albums through BMG, but it decided not to renew its partnership with the musician after the release of 2020’s ‘I Am Not A Dog On A Chain’. At the time his website declared: “BMG have appointed a new executive who does not want another Morrissey album”.
The Capitol run in is a new one, however, given that the falling out has happened before the album has even been released. And if Morrissey’s post is to be believed, ‘Bonfire Of The Teenagers’ may never see the light of day.
Capitol is yet to comment. Last week, the label announced its slate of upcoming spring releases, upon which Morrissey’s name did not feature.
In the meantime, Morrissey has already begun work on a new album, titled ‘Without Music The World Dies’. No label partner for that release has been announced.
