Michael Muller shot Morrissey on the grave of Johnny Ramone for this cover.

The CD two inner bag carries a reproduction of the Camden Town engine house which eventually became the Roundhouse—where the Ramones first played the UK in 1976. There’s a great seven-minute long doco about this show you can watch here.

Pat Pope took these shots of Morrissey in front of the Alone in London hostel on the corner of Kings Cross and St. Pancras Pentonville road which were used for the Maladjusted reissue.

The hostel is still there and is still committed to helping homeless youth in London but the sign has since been replaced with one with a modern logo. More information about Alone in London can be found here.

As much as we wanted to stray from the School of “Go-To” Albion Typography nothing quite says London like Gill or Johnston do and why avoid clichés just for the sake of avoiding clichés?

We went with Farey and Dawson’s gorgeous re-imagining of Johnston’s original for its more modern take and for the italics that are available for it. Titling was done in a modified P22 Johnston Underground for its rawer character.

To further reinforce the London connection a vintage map was licensed for use on the end papers. The map is cropped to run from Fulham to beloved East London, albeit on the inner pocket of the wallet.

Linder Sterling took the shots of Morrissey in El Paso which we used for the Southpaw Grammar reissue.

Years of Refusal, Morrissey’s ninth studio album has been released on Attack / Lost Highway (USA) and Polydor (rest of the world).

Mexican folk art and vintage California drove the art direction of Years of Refusal. Working around a photograph taken by Jake Walters of M holding a plump, drooling baby, we echoed the subtle Mexican sounds in the music by using typography inspired by José Guadalupe Posada, one of Mexico’s most famous illustrators and printmakers to give everything a kitschy frontier feel.

To accentuate the chiaroscuro of the cover image and painting, the LP and special CD / DVD versions were run on fabric-textured stock which makes the record feel like an oil painting hanging in the Louvre that you shouldn’t have just touched. The CD / DVD version comes in a mini LP gatefold and was again made by the lovely people at London Fancy Box who did a fantastic job of putting together a solid, high quality package.

Band photography by Travis Shinn (not seen here). Bodegon Con Jarra de Vino, 1914 (oil on canvas) by A. Fuentes, photography by Arturo Osorno / INBA / The Bridgeman Art Library

The first single from Years of Refusal is “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’. Shot by Jake Walters in Los Angeles.

The inner bags feature candid pics of the band shot by Travis Shinn and paintings of Paris by Jules Herve and Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre.