author: creativelivenew 17 January 2010

Morrissey resequenced and rejiggered Maladjusted in 2009, just like he did its 1995 predecessor, Southpaw Grammar, but if that reworking resulted in a drastically different end product, Moz's machinations can't hide the fact that Maladjusted is one of his most unfocused records. Morrissey almost admits as much in his liner notes to the reissue -- liner notes that are funny, detailed, honest, and revealing; he should write a memoir, or at the very least annotate every one of his records -- testifying to the confusion in the sessions and trumpeting the album's best moments (and decrying the original artwork, calling it "tearfully bad"), which helps provide a useful listening guide to the album even if it doesn't necessarily bolster the album's reputation. The record still remains a hodge-podge of the familiar, like the quite nice single "Alma Matters," and the more adventurous, like the churning title track and "Ambitious Outsiders," with some pleasant forgettable cuts bridging these two extremes. Adding B-sides to the mix and resequencing the album may not make it a better album, but it does wind up being more listenable, and for Morrissey diehards that's reason enough for this reissue.

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author: creativelivenew 8 November 2009

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