Modern Rock No. 1s: Morrissey and "The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get"
Morrissey's melancholic musing about unrequited love became the bright line between the acts who defined the alternative chart's early years and the U.S. takeover that defined the rest of the '90s
Morrissey - “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get”
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock chart: 7 weeks (April 2 to May 14, 1994)
Previous Modern Rock #1 hit: Tori Amos - “God”
Next Modern Rock #1 hit: Live - “Selling The Drama”
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Ace of Base - “The Sign” (6 total weeks, 3/12/94 to 4/2/94 and 5/7/94 to 5/14/94)
R. Kelly - “Bump N’ Grind” (4 total weeks, 4/9/94 to 4/30/94)
Unrequited love is a concept explored ad nauseum in art. The concept of loving someone from afar, not having that love reciprocated, and channeling those feelings into artistic expression is omnipresent throughout the generations and across all cultures. I’ve talked about it in this space before, specifically when Love and Rockets hit #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart with “So Alive.”
Given the ubiquity of unrequited love as a theme for rock and roll, it’s no surprise that Morrissey tapped this well of emotion and put it on display in what would become his final Modern Rock Tracks chart topper: “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get.”
I definitely enjoy a good song about unrequited love. As I mentioned in the Love and Rockets article linked above, my favorite of the “genre” is an unsung classic from future Modern Rock Tracks #1 artist Death Cab For Cutie called “I Will Possess Your Heart” — one of my favorite songs from the entire decade, if I’m being honest. Some of the best songs across all genres include reflections on this theme, and it’s often that passion that drives these songs to mainstream popularity. Even songs that are subtle allusions to unrequited love — like “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police or “Black” by Pearl Jam — are all-time bangers even if they’re not dripping with sentimentality or emotional wailing.
And don’t get me wrong: There’s plenty of songs that feature long swaths of emotional wailing when reflecting on a love that is not reciprocated. In 2023, Teen Vogue put together a list of 111 songs about unrequited love, a playlist that includes songs from all genres and myriad artists, many of which involve artists pouring their hearts out. Interestingly, both Morrissey and Death Cab For Cutie appear on the chart, though not for the songs referenced above.
There may be good reason for that: “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get” is not a good song. I’ve spilled a fair amount of digital ink about Morrissey, The Smiths, and the overall greatness of the artists both together and solo when I covered Morrissey’s first MRT chart topper, “Tomorrow.” The Morrissey track they reference in the Teen Vogue article, “Black Cloud,” was a deep cut from his 2009 album Years of Refusal, not his final #1 U.S. single as a solo artist. If I’m being honest, “Black Cloud” is a far better track than “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get.” It’s not even close, really.
The bottom line: “Ignore” feels phoned in and inauthentic. Unlike so many of the other tracks listed above or in the Teen Vogue piece, Morrissey doesn’t seem to channel much emotion into expressing his angst over his feelings being unnoticed or unappreciated. He’s sort of going with it, resigning himself to a love that’s never going to happen, but almost bitterly continuing on with the charade. It’s more spiteful than forlorn, more biting than loving, and maybe that’s where it rubs me wrong thematically.
Beware!
I bear more grudges
Than lonely high court judges
When you sleep
I will creep
Into your thoughts
Like a bad debt
That you can't pay
And don’t get me wrong: There’s often a bit of bitterness in songs that really tap into the raw emotion of unrequited love. As I mentioned in my Love and Rockets piece when referencing Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Gibbard toes the line between innocent unrequited love and something borderline criminal:
“Granted, Gibbard’s narrator takes this aesthetic a bit too far, building his infatuation to a point that sounds more like a stalker and less like someone admiring a crush from afar. But the beat set by that bass guitar and the slow build-up to the lyrical portion of the story make the song great on its own; the feeling of infatuation that’s not reciprocated is both icing on the cake and a feeling that almost everyone’s experienced at one time or another.”
I don’t feel anything in Morrissey’s lamentation. I think he does a good job of channeling the effect of being frustrated over the lack of a reciprocal love affair, but he starts to go down a path wherein he sees fault in the other person for not getting the hint, which is dangerous territory. In Death Cab’s single, Gibbard inches toward “blaming” the object of his affection for not understanding the potential of their love, but rather than being scornful, he muses that his infatuation will make more sense if that person just gives it a chance. Morrissey doesn’t give the subject of his song a choice: They need to deal with it, and it’s on them if they don’t get it.
The song itself is boring, repetitive, and not really inspiring in any sense, which stinks, because Morrissey is quite talented, and so many of his other singles that charted in the alternative radio landscape are quite good. I have to think his prodigious back catalog and legacy hits as both a solo artist and a member of The Smiths played a big role in landing this song in the top spot for seven uninterrupted weeks.
But this is it. For at least the rest of the decade, the new wave of U.S.-based alternative rock acts would command the charts going forward. Indeed, from its inception in September 1988 to May 1994, the Modern Rock Tracks chart became a repository for legacy British and Australian acts, bands who’d dominated the underground landscape of alternative rock before the genre had a home in Billboard magazine’s review of popular songs. But somewhere along the way, a bunch of grungy kids from Seattle shook the zeitgeist, and while these legacy acts were able to withstand the initial seismic shift, the aftershocks proved too overwhelming to overcome.
Case in point: Beavis and Butt-Head likely echoed the sentiments of all of U.S. Gen X teens and early-20-somethings when they had these thoughts about Morrissey:
From this point forward, a substantial percentage of the bands who will be featured in Chart Chat on top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart will be U.S. based. The foreign acts who will occasionally make appearances in this space will have a sonic flavor very similar to the U.S. acts that dominate this time period. I talked about this when I discussed the inclusion of Nielsen SoundScan data in the formation of Billboard’s charts in my review of Beck’s first #1 hit “Loser,” and the ripple effect of that data will start to become evident going forward.
I’m not going to lie and tell you that I’m not excited about this shift. Whether it was coincidental because of the timing of my Musical Awakening™️ or purposeful in the way that mass-market forces can influence the listening and buying decisions of naive-minded teenagers, the movement toward U.S.-based alternative rock acts and the mainstream glut of artists that fit this mold defined much of my musical tastes. This will ultimately change the way I think about songs going forward, as many of them were (and continue to be) on heavy rotation not just on ‘90s alternative rock genre-specific radio stations, but on my own personal playlists as well. As it relates to my content in this space going forward, I have to ask myself how best to review songs that were a big part of my life after spending two years reviewing a lot of songs that weren’t. It’ll be an interesting thought experiment come to life in this space.
I guess we’ll see what the future brings, but as far as Morrissey goes, I’m glad I won’t have to review another one of his phoned-in meh performance like this. That said, I think this is just a minor blip in an otherwise stellar career, and while I am not a fan of this take on unrequited love, I appreciate everything Morrissey has contributed to the formation of modern alternative rock, and hope I’ll see some of his future work in the Chart Check section of this newsletter going forward.
Rating: 1/10
Chart Check
Other notable MRT chart songs from this time period
As I mentioned above, we’re on the cusp of a massive U.S. artist takeover of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. That said, there’s still some leftover Madchester that found its way into the top 10 during Morrissey’s extended run at #1, as well as an enigma of a song by … Enigma. Sarah McLachlan cracks the top 5, Smashing Pumpkins hit the top 10 with my favorite song off Siamese Dream, and Pearl Jam claps back at critics who think their song titles are too short.
“Return to Innocence” by Enigma (#2):
Germany’s Enigma managed a #2 Modern Rock Tracks chart peak with “Return to Innocence,” a song you may not know by title but almost certainly know by its refrain, which features a chant from the Amis people, an indigenous Austronesian ethnic group native to Taiwan. The song was omnipresent in the mid 1990s in both popular media and in promotional commercials for products and events, notably the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The song was stuck at #2 for the final five weeks of Morrissey’s run at the top of the chart, and ultimately peaked at #4 on the Hot 100 as well.
“Possession” by Sarah McLachlan (#4):
I came of age at a time where Sarah McLachlan had become a mainstream sensation, and as I mentioned in my writeup about Tori Amos last week, it was verboten for guys of a certain age to dive too deep into the well of female artists. As a result, I didn’t hear “Possession” until this week, and that’s a shame, because it’s a pretty solid track, thematically and musically very intense compared to her lighter, pop-friendly fare. It’s a fascinating artistic decision, as the song was apparently inspired by McLachlan’s dealings with two fans who believed in their minds they were in a relationship with her. The song peaked at #4 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart behind Morrissey, and topped out at #73 on the Hot 100.
“Can’t Get Out Of Bed” by The Charlatans (#6):
Former Modern Rock Tracks chart #1 artists The Charlatans returned to the top 10 with “Can’t Get Out Of Bed,” a track that feels like it bridges a gap between Madchester and Britpop. I hear bits of what made their song “Weirdo” a standout success, while at the same time getting that sensation of a sound that would propel bands like Oasis and Blur to the top of the British charts in the mid 1990s. Because of the aforementioned wave of U.S.-based artists in the mid ‘90s, acts like The Charlatans would not find themselves back on the U.S. charts again, though they maintained a persistent presence on the U.K. charts well into the mid 2000s.
“Disarm” by Smashing Pumpkins (#8):
Future Modern Rock Tracks chart #1 artist Smashing Pumpkins continue their top-10 dominance with “Disarm,” a slow but intense track off their Siamese Dream album. The track would top out at #8 on the MRT chart behind Morrissey, but represents the third of fourteen consecutive releases by the band to peak in the top 10 of the alternative chart. This is probably my favorite track on Siamese Dream, and its diverse and melodic sound would color a lot of the fun experimentation the band would do as part of its next album.
“Spoonman” by Soundgarden (#9):
The aftershocks of the initial grunge wave are starting to overtake U.S. radio at this point, and capitalizing on that wave is Soundgarden. Their mainstream success kicks off with the release of “Spoonman,” the first single off their multiplatinum album Superunknown. “Spoonman” would top out at #9 behind Morrissey, and although the band would never find its way to the top of the charts, we’re a few months away from a single that would define the band’s legacy. Sounds to me like we might have another “Modern Rock Tracks … No. 2s” column on our hands.
“Cut Your Hair” by Pavement (#10):
California-based indie rockers Pavement fit the definition of one-hit wonder in the most traditional sense, as their alt-rock banger “Cut Your Hair” was the only track in the band’s catalog to chart in the U.S. This song peaked at #10 on the MRT chart behind Morrissey, but was inescapable on alternative radio in the mid 1990s and beyond. You might have heard parts of it related to the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption, or in popular culture in things like Brady Bunch movies.
“Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town” by Pearl Jam (#17):
Much like “Black,” “Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town” was a Pearl Jam album cut not released as a commercial single but yet managed to hold a position on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Thanks to airplay alone, the Vs. track peaked at #17 behind Morrissey. Hilariously, Eddie Vedder noted in several interviews that the lengthy title was a reaction to critics who poked fun at the band for one-word song titles in their earliest releases (think “Jeremy,” “Black,” “Alive,” “Go,” “Daughter.”). These days, fans refer to the song colloquially as “Elderly Woman” or “Small Town.”
Ouch! We have a disagreement on this one Matt! "Ignore Me" has always been one of my favorite Morrissey songs. Perhaps I've felt that sense of unrequited love in the past or I just like the hook. Either way, I still enjoy it decades later.
McLachlan's "Possession" is a great song though! I had it at number 3 on my Top Ten of 1994. (Morrissey, by the way, didn't make my Ten that year but I still liked it!) I was also really into Counting Crows, Sheryl Crow, Tori Amos, and Seal that year. They all made my Top Ten.