#kill uncle

So yes, this is a 2018 interview that's full of copy paste current era Moz nonsense. The press hates me, the world hates me, Brexit is a farce, I'm the only true intellectual in the room.

But somehow this really stood out to me. Not him lying about never listening to The Smiths, because okay, sweetheart, whatever helps you sleep at night, but the "I wasn't ready. I rushed in too quickly. It was my fault" bit.

Viva Hate and Kill Uncle were his first two solo albums, aside from the odds and ends album of Bona Drag. Kill Uncle might have not been as successful as Viva Hate, but they were the start of a huge era of success for Moz. Everyday is like Sunday and Suedehead are undoubtedly his most popular solo songs even today.

So him not being equally as proud of those two albums seems really strange, doesn't it? And his response of "It was my fault" is even more odd. It reminds me of a habit that Noel has. Jeevey can explain it better, but Noel will at times accidentally say things about Liam that are way too intimate. Almost impulsively. We're in love right now, it's not illegal on the road. As if he forgets that's inappropriate. I get a similar feeling here with Moz, where he forgets to stop himself from expressing grief over what happened between him and Johnny: "I rushed in too quickly...It was my fault."

Because yes, apparently Angel, Angel was the only song he ever wrote post-Smiths with Johnny in mind, but we all know that's not true. Viva Hate is an entire album of Moz grieving. There's a few songs in there, filling up the empty spaces, like Bengali and Little Man, but at its heart it's Moz trying to cope with the fact that Johnny left him.

It'd be easy to say Moz was being facetious, but on some level I really feel that it's more telling than that. I think Moz struggles to feel proud of Viva Hate and Kill Uncle because of how painful that time of his life was despite the overwhelming success. I can't say for sure which songs on Kill Uncle would cause him to feel remorse, since Driving Your Girlfriend Home is supposedly about Linder, but East West and King Leer definitely have some Johnny-esque lyrics:

Time flew

I wanted to see you

Somehow I could not do

Because of success

What a strange life this can be

Also this took me forever!

And maybe I’ll even arrive

Maybe I’ll even arrive ...