Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey

Ringleader of the Tormentors, Morrissey's eighth studio album, landed on Attack Records on 3 April 2006, two years after You Are the Quarry had ended his long quiet spell. Tony Visconti produced, and the sound thickens up and toughens considerably, a change the man himself put down to new guitarist Jesse Tobias. The guitars are heavier, the arrangements beefier, and that baritone rides on top of it all like a man delivering a sermon from a balcony.

It went straight in at number one in Britain, and did the same in Sweden, Malta and Greece, while reaching 27 in America. "You Have Killed Me" plays out as grand, swooning melodrama, and the record as a whole is the sound of an old stager enjoying the extra muscle.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.