Morrissey — My Love Life

JUL 01 1991 · 12:00

Morrissey — My Love Life (1991) Director: Tim Broad Era: Post-Smiths Morrissey Solo Era (1991) - transitional period between Kill Uncle and Your Arsenal, marking the end of the Morrissey/Nevin songwriting partnership and a stylistic pivot toward Americana-inflected indie pop High curatorial value as a confirmed Tim Broad-directed artifact from a transitional moment in Morrissey's post-Smiths career. The video's Phoenix location, low-saturation film palette, and iconic vehicle imagery make it visually distinctive within the Hulmerist-era canon. As one of Broad's final Morrissey collaborations before his 1993 death, it holds additional biographical and historical weight for both Morrissey scholarship and music video history. Context: Released September 30, 1991, 'My Love Life' arrived at a pivotal transitional moment in Morrissey's solo career — the final single co-written with Mark Nevin, closing the Kill Uncle chapter and immediately preceding the harder-edged Your Arsenal era with Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer. Filming in Phoenix, Arizona placed Morrissey's quintessentially English outsider persona against the sun-scorched sprawl of the American Southwest, a recurring Broad/Morrissey device of ironic displacement. The single reached number 29 on the UK Singles Chart and was later compiled on World of Morrissey (1995) and Suedehead: The Best of Morrissey (1997), cementing its status as a standalone fan favorite rather than album-cycle content. Director notes: Confirmed directed by Tim Broad per Wikipedia, IMDb, and IMVDb. Shot primarily on Van Buren Street in Phoenix, Arizona. Morrissey recounts in his Autobiography that local filming regulations required the Rolls-Royce Corniche II to be mounted on an automated platform rather than driven freely, with a camera rig attached, so the driving sequence was filmed at low speed on a deserted side street. The video features Morrissey and band members styled with his signature quiff. This was one of Broad's final videos with Morrissey before Broad's death in 1993.