5. Roxy MusicFor Your Pleasure
If a young Morrissey obsessed about the New York Dolls in the 70s it’s not too difficult to see why Roxy Music also appealed. For Your Pleasure is universally acclaimed as the band’s finest album and saw Brian Eno at the zenith of his creative output in a commercial context (though U2 and Coldplay fans may beg to differ) before his departure from the bosom of the fraternal unit.
Tracks like ‘Do The Strand’ epitomise Roxy’s louche glamour and spiky accessibility but this long player is also brooding and surprisingly malevolent, especially on the title track, and the deliriously creepy ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’; the song scratches at the veneer of respectability, where behind the doors of opulence lurks a character so alone that his obsession becomes a mail-order rubber doll. Pin-pricking pomposity and deflating the ego were key themes throughout Morrissey’s work, as were class and most importantly, isolation. "Before I die I’ll write this letter," sings Bryan Ferry on ‘Strictly Confidential’ "here are the secrets you must know"; a lyric that wouldn’t have looked out of place at any point during Morrissey’s career. Jeremy Allen
