MORRISSEY “Your Arsenal” Sire * * *If...

MORRISSEY “Your Arsenal”

Sire * * *

If this is a Morrissey album, what’s with those power-surf-metal chords? That’s former David Bowie partner Mick Ronson--Morrissey’s latest producer--giving the singer just the kick in the seat that he needed.

For Morrissey, there’s always been a very thin line between annoying self-pity and enticing self-doubt, between self-obsession and self-effacement, between moping and hoping. For once, perhaps thanks to Ronson, he stays pretty much on the good side of the line as he wittily and confidently discourses on such favorite topics as love, what it means to be English and, of course, himself.

Even when he gets snippy (“We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful”) he does it with Noel Coward-like style. And when he turns downcast, singing, “Wish I had the charm to attract the one I love / But you see I have no charm,” he sounds, well, charming.

He’s still singing the same three melodies as always, but Ronson’s varied rock textures give them new contexts for the first time since Morrissey left the Smiths. And together they reach the pinnacle that Morrissey has been building to for years with the torchy, sentimental “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday,” which, if there’s any justice, will be a show-stopper for Liza Minnelli in years to come.