Maladjusted - Morrissey

Recorded quickly and released in 1997 with little fanfare, Maladjusted is by some considerable distance the most half-arsed and mediocre collection of songs ever put out under Morrissey's name. Morrissey doesn't seem especially inspired by the ho-hum music he is forced to work with here and everything, including the lyrics and artwork, are below his usual standards and attention to detail. He regrouped several years later and returned to form, but Maladjusted seemed easy to portray as the beginning of a terminal decline at the time. The record has a homemade, knocked together sound and doesn't repay a repeat listen. Reviews were mixed, with some ok ones, but ...

Since Morrissey left The Smiths, he has rarely captured the lyrical level he had with The Smiths, and never found a song writer as good as Johnny Marr. With this album I was really dispointed. The music and lyrics are quite poor. I stuggle to find 2 really good tracks. The songwriters on this album are american, you can tell. The songs have no personal connection with me, like he did with The Smiths and his early solo albums. The songs also don't have an "englishness" sound like previous efforts. A very poor album, but don't give up on Morrissey yet, he may surprise us yet! ...