release date: Aug. 11, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Steve Lillywhite
label: Island Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Maladjusted" - 2. "Alma Matters" (4 / 5) - 6. "Ammunition" - 11. "Satan Rejected My Soul"
6th studio album by Morrissey who is now enrolled with Island Records after only one album with RCA, but he still makes use of producer Steve Lillywhite. The album would be his last in 7 years, and it was recorded during and shortly in the aftermath of a long law suit with his former band mates from The Smiths. Mike Joyce, former drummer of the band, had sued Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr for not paying him and bassist Andy Rourke an equal share of royalties earned on their back catalog. Morrissey had lost the initial case but he the appealed - twice, and lost all cases.
Stylistically, the album appears like a clone of his albums Vauxhall and I (1994) with its grand ballads and Your Arsenal (1992) and its electrified indie rock tunes, or at least so it appears. The combination only succeeds to some degree. Now, "Maladjusted" does contain both the fine ballads and the alt. rock guitar-driven tracks but where Lillywhite on Morrissey's '94 album made sure that the compositions were nicely balanced, that part of the project doesn't really succeed here. My guess is that a stronger chamber pop element on some of the tracks with bold use of strings and horns mix only little with the soaring electric guitars of Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte. So, the result is that the single tracks in essence are better than the whole. For some reason, Island Records reissued the album in 2009 in a remastered and much altered release with 5 bonus tracks, including one track replacement and a completely new track order.
I have never liked this album much and consider it alongside the predecessor Southpaw Grammar (1995) Morrissey's least attractive studio albums.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, Q Magazine 2 / 5, and Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]
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| 2009 Remaster |
