It took The Moz about 15 years, since Vauxhall and I, to
figure out if that angsty concert-rock shit ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Although Years of Refusal won’t win any new Moz-ites, fans will
delight in the dramatic but hilarious musings on mortality. The
charming older man does have some new tricks, though. He rhymes through
a list of anti-anxiety drugs with garage-rock glam on “Something Is
Squeezing My Skull.” On the slow lament “You Were Good In Your Time” he
asks a washed-up celeb, “Were you actually aware that you died?” and
proves he’s still full of life on “When I Last Spoke to Carol,” which
sounds like a Smiths tune wrapped in flamenco. Sue Carter Flinn
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.