The far-reaching disdain of Morrissey now encompasses Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. Sadly, those are two British musicians who would probably both cite Morrissey as an influence, but he’s not into their music at all. In an email interview with Colorado alt-weekly Boulder Weekly, the Smiths frontman mourns the dearth of spontaneous, uncontrolled musicians:

There are no bands or singers who become successful without overwhelming marketing. There are no surprise success stories. Everything is stringently controlled, obvious and predictable and has exactly the same content. So, we are now in the era of marketed pop stars, which means that the labels fully control the charts, and consequently the public has lost interest. It’s very rare that a record label does something for the good of music. Thus we are force-fed such as Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, which at least means that things can’t possibly get any worse. It is sad, though. There’s no spontaneity now, and it all seems to be unsalvageable.

Force-fed? Ouch. In the rest of the interview he also talks about how he used to unreservedly love NME, how people who think he’s funny instead of depressing are usually way more intelligent, and how seeing some horrific slaughterhouse footage spurred his continued devotion to vegetarianism. According to Moz, as soon as we stop eating animals, everything else will fall into place:

It seems to me that the situation has reversed. The bands now strive to stay healthy whereas the music public, especially the very young, dress and look very clichéd rock ‘n’ roll, and with that comes a careless attitude towards drugs. The positives are the rejection of fur and leather and McDonalds and even plastics, all very important no-go zones for the intelligent young people. Then you see someone wearing animal fur and they immediately register as being moronic. So, in amongst the grime, I see lots of good changes, and as soon as animals are off the menu, the world will be a great place.

I do like his humor, but what seems more depressing to me is that Morrissey’s ideal world has no more steak and no more “Stay With Me.” But I’d be cool with never hearing Ed Sheeran ruin cover a great rap song again.