Bona Drag

Product Information

Pitchfork may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The years covered by Bona Drag coincided directly with the crossover of acid house and subsequent emergence of Madchester, a hopeful injection of youth, optimism, and hedonism, traits met with suspicion if not outright hostility in Morrissey's worldview. As a title, if not a studio creation, Bona Drag was rescued in 1990 and issued as a compilation record piecing together that first run of seven singles-- six of them rich and eclectic and rightly beloved, one of them the song that derailed his progress. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The album is also significant for including the first tracks by Morrissey to chart in the United States.The album name meaning nice outfits is an example of the subculture slang Polari explored further on the album's first track "Piccadilly Palare".

The album features an array of Morrissey's most popular songs from his early solo career, most of which had not been released on any previous album. There is not a bad track on this album and the new vinyl version with 5 extra tracks is even better. Rarely does an artist release a compilation album as his second solo album, but Morrissey is no ordinary artist, so of course he did just that. And without the weight of being an A-side, buried in the middle of the record, even "Ouija Board" comes off as charming.Bona Drag features all of Morrissey's solo singles up to that point, two of which ("Suedehead" and "Everyday Is Like Sunday") were taken from his first solo album Viva Hate, while the others were making their first ever appearance on an album. Bona Drag launched Morrissey's career in the US, and in many ways it marked the turning point after which he became less popular in the UK but achieved increasing success in America. In a career of odd reissues and collections, however, they at least make a welcome addition to this 20th anniversary release-- all genuine curiosities for completists that will please non-fans. Packaging, like the other anniversary releases is great - printed inners, a poster (well not sure about that but. Bona Drag, the most enduring success of Morrissey's solo career, was built on his first true taste of failure.