Years of Refusal (2009)

Image credit: Autumn De Wilde

Strong Man: Morrissey flexes for the camera

''Life is nothing much to lose,'' Morrissey croons early on his ninth solo album, instantly reassuring legions of pompadoured obsessives that His Excellency, the Mope, still hasn't turned his perpetual frown upside down. But shrinking violets should stick to the lyric sheet: Years of Refusal is the former Smiths frontman's hardest-rocking album since 1992's Your Arsenal. It's a surprisingly muscular set of punked-up Britpop, spiked with the singer's still-dripping scorn: ''You don't like me, but you love me/Either way you're wrong.'' B+

Download This: Listen to the song ''Something Is Squeezing My Skull'' on hypem.com