Morrissey Insists He Was Dropped, Says Label ‘Botched’ Album Release

Has anybody considered that all of Morrissey's correspondence about how he believes his record label mishandled the marketing of his latest album is actually a subliminal marketing campaign itself? It seems like 'World Peace is None of Your Business' is being mentioned a lot these days.

After Morrissey called out Los Angeles-based Harvest Records for allegedly refusing to release proper music videos in advance of the album's mid-July release, rumors -- possibly started by Moz himself -- began swirling that the label dropped him in response. A few days later, a source "close to the situation" said Morrissey was actually still with the label. The singer then posted a statement saying those reports were incorrect and that he really was dropped.

Now, as reported by Slicing Up Eyeballs, the album has been pulled from iTunes and Spotify and Morrissey has posted another lengthy diatribe against Harvest, pointing fingers at the label's decision to opt for strange spoken word videos to promote the record as opposed to traditional music videos.

I believed that the rich soil of the album had several strong hit singles. Frayed tempers began when Harvest arranged the 'spoken word' films, none of which gave any clue as to what World peace is none of your business intended to be, or is. The films were OK, but they went nowhere and stayed there.

He then goes on to hint that label head Steve Barnett is personally responsible for the failure of the album.

Sorrily botched the project may now be, but it's worth it to get Morrissey out of our Inbox. Yes, I can be intensely persistent, and I certainly have an over-active fantasy-life, but the Harvest experience tells us that despite the blinding flash of teeth and smiles, it doesn't take much for the coin to flip and suddenly we're all compromised and shattered. All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away.

You can read the entire statement here. Although those strange spoken-word videos are now down, too, you can listen to 'Earth is the Loneliest Planet' below: