Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GROWER IF EVER THERE WAS ONE!, 18 Mar 2006
I discovered Morrissey quite recently; More stumbled across him really. I just missed out on The Smiths, and so wasn't really aware of his music. When a friend played The Smiths "Singles" to me I was hooked. I've since gone out and, over a year, bought each Smiths album and practically every Morrissey one. I can't believe The Smiths passed me by while I was a kid listening to Madness & Status Quo (please don't hold that against me). Tut tut!Maladjusted was one of the last Mozzer albums I bought, on the strength (or weakness) of some pretty tepid reviews. As another reviewer here stated, I can't understand why. THIS REALLY IS A BEAUTIFUL RECORD! It shows plenty of sides of the multi-faceted Morrissey. From a dark, tense opening title track which takes the listener through West London begining with the line "I want to start from before the beginning...", into the fantastic 2nd track & standout single "Alma Matters". "Ambitious Outsiders" does what it says on the tin, being rather ambitious, and not really fitting with the other tracks on the album. "Trouble Loves Me" is absolutely beautiful! Starting with an "Imagine-esque" piano intro, it builds into a kind of show-song. Morrissey excels with songs that most other vocalists would simply not carry off (Come Back To Camden is very similar). "Papa Jack" is interesting at best, and then comes "Wide To Recieve" which at first didn't grab me, but I recently played it in the car 6 times on the trot. It's that good! Simple, but very effective.
"Roy's Keen" is a complete shift in mood with an upbeat Mozzer telling us "you've never seen a keener window-cleaner". "He Cried" is another anthemic show-type track, and the album closes with a real rocker in "Satan Rejected My Soul" were our hero hints that even after life he still may not fit in in heaven or hell. Poor Mozzer! One thing's for certain, if this is one of Morrissey's poorer albums, then what chance does anybody else have? If you like Morrissey you should love Maladjusted.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The beginnings of a return to form..., 7 Nov 2001
By A Customer
With "Southpaw Grammar", Morrissey seemed to be trying to get something out of his system. The resultant album, although interesting, didn't make for particularly good listening. Although I wouldn't go so far as to label it a self-indulgent album, it clearly lacked any real attempt at communicating with its audience. Of course, all of Morrissey's work is personal and introspective, but almost always universally so. Not so with "Southpaw". "Maladjusted" marked the beginnings of a return to that universality; it actually speaks to you. Although, on the whole, it doesn't quite match the promise of "Your Arsenal" and "Vauxhall and I", it does contain some beautiful moments (and Morrissey's voice is stronger than ever). "Wide to Receive" and "Trouble Loves Me" are as heartfelt and soulful as anything the man has ever produced, "Ambitious Outsiders" is somehow both moving and threatening, and the title track is a fascinating and unique arrangement. It's this uniqueness, I think, that keeps Morrissey not only relevant but essential. And it's an effortless uniqueness, not a desperate, dear-God-how-are-we-going-to-stay-ahead? uniqueness that sees the likes of Radiohead moving in ever-decreasing circles, chasing their own cooling heals. It's an effortless uniqueness because, ultimately, Morrissey the artist and Morrissey the man have always been inseparable, fused in the womb. Nobody writes or sings or even thinks like Morrissey. There are no precedents, no pretenders to the throne; imitation is futile. If you want to hear this kind of thing, there's only one place to go.If the next album isn't a multi-award winning, critically-adored milestone in popular music, I will honestly be very surprised.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Stalinesque rewriting of history.. but The Past Never Dies, Morrissey., 27 April 2009
Two years later, and Moz returned with the more typical "Maladjusted". At the time, Moz was so alienated he decried the usual sleeve designing skills to an inhouse team that gave the record a dull and tediously bland cover that betrayed the contents.
"Maladjusted" as it was then, was a strong, cohesive album, made of powerful songwriting, lyrical adventure, and Moz's wonderful lyrical melody. Moz was fast becoming a relic in the eyes of revisionist history - after all - with that many years behind him, there was no clear indication at that point that Moz wasn't simply going to fade from the public eye like so many former frontmen of generations past into a selective, niche solo career. Around him, Oasis puttered their last relevancy, Blur and Pulp skittered to the left, New Order and Depeche Mode had long since imploded, and The Cure were mining their commercial nadir. The landscape has changed, irrevocably, and all that was left were the dogged survivours of the apocalypse.
Moz was a man adrift. Whilst neither he nor his band lacked purpose or vigour, the muscular rhythms of the title track and the assertively rebellious "Ambitious Outsiders" or "Ammunition" were and are, equal to anything else Morrissey's solo career had birthed.
However, this reissue is a travesty. In an act of historical revisionism, Morrissey has delibrately excised two songs - the unexceptional "Roy's Keen" and the powerful, but somewhat regretful "Papa Jack". Any exclusion is unforgivable : You cannot get away with airbrushing out of history what you are embarassed about, and neither of these songs are worth being embarassed about. "Papa Jack" is powerful, brilliant, and touching love letter from a fading star to his shrinking but loyal constituency.
Maybe Morrissey wants to pretend he never doubted us or himself, and that he never felt that perhaps his time was up. If he must excise anything, or perhaps leave anything unsaid, the most obvious choice is "Sorrow Will Come In The End", an atonal, vicious three minute attack on his former drummer that ends with the sounds of guillotines being dropped, and lyrics as juvenile as "legisled theft leavs me bereft / lawyer / liar" and "I praise the day that brings you pain" and "Don't close your eyes / a man who slits throats has time on his hands / I'm going to get you". Moz still grinds an enormous axe about the fact that he thinks he can underpay people and mislead, and rues the demise of others considerably less rich than he is from his LA Mansion. Why he felt this song deserves inclusion in the album, when much stronger material is airbrushed out is baffling and frankly, stupid.
Of the rest of the album, "Trouble Loves Me", and "Alma Matters" are the type of song that Morrissey is best known for, half-revealing mysteries, poetic enigmas, songs that singlehandedly destroy the cliché that The Smiths were the only good stuff he ever did and his solo work was uniform drivel. Some of it is drivel ; and "Sorrow Will Come In The End" is the worst song he ever recorded. The B-sides, such as "Lost" are important parts of the story, and in some cases as strong as the album cuts. Their inclusion here is worthy ; but they should be bookends and not shuffle out better songs that for some reason Moz wants to disown. (And if there is one album Morrissey should rework completely, its the inept and limp "Kill Uncle").
Add bonus tracks, by all means, change the artwork and pervert the running order if you must. But for heavens sake, don't try and rewrite what was. History will prove you wrong. There was a time when the kids reached out, and you pushed them away. And they may stay away.
If you can, find the original release with the cohesive, and much stronger running order. "Maladjusted" is a fabulous record, but this is not the way to listen to it. Pick this up for the extra songs and not for the sentiment. You can't pretend the past never happened.
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