It took him a while, but Morrissey seems to have finally gotten himself dropped from Harvest Records. Weeks after the singer and the label seemed to disagree about whether or not he was still tied to Harvest, Morrissey’s latest rant on True To You has managed to get his last album pulled from stores and streaming services, indicating that it’s only a matter of time before Morrissey is a free agent again.
In his latest essay, Morrissey expressed his problems with Harvest Records in great detail, chronicling what he perceived to be the label’s gross mismanagement and lack of artistic respect for him. Specifically, Morrissey took issue with Harvest’s refusal to make proper music videos for the album, opting instead to film him giving spoken-word performances of his lyrics. Morrissey claims that the spoken-word films “gave [no] clue as to what World Peace Is None Of Your Business intended to be.” While Morrissey continued pushing for a proper music video and publicity tour (one that would have involved performing on late-night talk shows), the singer alleges that Harvest remained committed to the spoken-word videos and attempted to have Morrissey drum up publicity through readings of his recently-published autobiography.
After more harsh words for Harvest Records boss Steve Barnett, Morrissey predicted that his album “will instantly disappear from iTunes and record stores and every download-upload-offload outlet on the planet;” that ended up being true as of a few minutes ago. Whether this was the work of Harvest or Morrissey himself remains to be seen. At least now, we can hope that this ends sooner rather than later.
Most “artists” these days are merely “professionals” who know how to obey the modern corporate agendas. Real artists by their very definition are often challenging and sometimes even abrasive. That’s Morrissey, a true artist.