20 Years Ago: Morrissey loses a court battle, then loses his way on ‘Maladjusted’ by Nick DeRiso

20 Years Ago: Morrissey Loses a Court Battle, Then Loses His Way on ‘Maladjusted’ - Diffuser
By Nick DeRiso.

Excerpt:

"Morrissey was a musician without a sound, a citizen without a country, and man outside the mainstream by the time Maladjusted arrived on Aug. 11, 1997. Beset by all sides, he’d devolve into an unhappy figure who was “devious, truculent and unreliable.”

Those were the words of Judge John Weeks, anyway, as he ruled against Morrissey in a 1996 suit over back royalties brought by his former Smiths bandmate Mike Joyce. Morrissey bristled at the characterization, to the point where his next album was basically sunk by “Sorrow Will Come in the End,” a vicious, dirge-like response to the trial.

In fact, Island Records refused to include the song in U.K. pressings, fearing a libel suit. Morrissey tried to move the album to Mercury, even as he continued to grouse about the seemingly tossed-off cover image. He left England behind in this same darkly unstable period, moving to Los Angeles."


With lots of anniversaries coming up, I guess we should get used to these reflective articles. Some Moz quotes used and the court case rehashed.
Regards,
FWD.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I love "Malajusted". It's not exactly my fav Morrissey album but I'm fond of tunes as "Alma matters", "He creied", "Satan rejected my soul" and other ones. The band is incredible good and Stevie Lillywhite's done a good work. "Alma matters" is really a pop song... if it was sung by Britney Spears the tune would be a huge sucess.
 
Blikey! Reckon no wonder why he lives in LA 125,000,000 miles away from "the uk" and we are happy to have you Mayor of Malibu.
 
UK is so corrupt. Exact same scenario with Spandau Ballet and the verdict went the other direction. Total amateur hour.
 
UK is so corrupt. Exact same scenario with Spandau Ballet and the verdict went the other direction. Total amateur hour.

The Spandau Ballet case was about songwriting royalties, so not the exact same scenario, actually.
 
Maladjusted was good! I said it! The cover though... Well. The less said about that, the better.
And I really dug his quiffless look. My favorite memory of that time was seeing him on the tour, and there was a scrawny little guy with his legs wrapped around a lighting rig high above the stage, who was only there to keep a spotlight on M at all times. I've never seen that before or since.
 
Weird because it is better than the following 3 albums.

Funny I was thinking today how zeitgeist overwrites the actual quality of music, not just in Morrissey's case. Many times artists, bands release fantastic albums but they never get the critical acclaim because they belong to a past movement, or at least labelled that way, and there are more "hip" currrent bands where the attention goes. It can work the other way round, too: YATQ was/is not the comeback the press presented at the time, but he could have released any medoicre album (he actually did), the critics would have praised him because he was suddenly the godfather of indie and many bands referred to him as a major influence.
 
The cover is a little odd but never bothered me that much. I think this phase marks the end of a younger looking Morrissey - he looked noticeably older by YATQ. I also thought the song "Maladjusted" was a strong opening track and perhaps an underappreciated gem ... did he ever play it live?
 
The cover is a little odd but never bothered me that much. I think this phase marks the end of a younger looking Morrissey - he looked noticeably older by YATQ. I also thought the song "Maladjusted" was a strong opening track and perhaps an underappreciated gem ... did he ever play it live?

[video]
 
Maladjusted is a decent album, some good songs, pretty strong, with decent production.

The only part I hate is Ambitious Outsiders, boy does the synth and production on THAT sound terrible, anti musical and uninspired. Sounds like MIDI music that got dropped from Doom 2
 
So easy to slag off people like Moz who actually try to do something. Maladjusted and Kill Uncle are Moz's two weakest albums (in my opinion) but they have more good songs on them than 95% of everyone else's best. Moz was right when he said some people and lazy journalists just hate him and always will no matter what he does.
 
I love maladjusted myself. The album and not the song though. The song I almost always skip but the reissue gets a lot of play and warm thoughts from me. Especially after the terrible southpaw which I can't stand. To me it marks morrissey maturing into his middle years. I think of it his first real crooning album as well. Ambitious outsiders alma matters trouble loves me (maybe my favorite on the album) and more all sound great imo. I like it more than vauxhall. Quarry was also a fantastic album. It also marked a change though lyrics wise. For me I felt that was the beginning of the confident tougher morrissey. Gone were the sad vulnerable songs about being lonely. He seemed more aggressive and resilint than ever before from that point forward
 
It gets a lot of stick, but it's still an album I dip in to.
Wide To Receive with its wonderful recorder solo & Trouble Loves Me are worth it alone.
Regards,
FWD.
 
The very idea that Morrissey has *ever* been "a musician without a sound" is beyond absurd. If ever there was a musician *with* a definitive sound, it's Morrissey, you f***ing prick.
 
I always felt robbed that Sorrow Will Come To You In The End wasn't on the UK release. Then, when I finally got to hear the accurately described "dirge", I'm glad it wasn't, as the album flows better without it. Sadly, like all those reissues M felt the need to mess with the track order and content to their detriment...
 
It gets a lot of stick, but it's still an album I dip in to.
Wide To Receive with its wonderful recorder solo & Trouble Loves Me are worth it alone.
Regards,
FWD.

Exactly! Methinks they are the 2 best songs on Maladjusted (the third being Ammunition).

And let's not forget the monumental b-sides that made it onto the reissue - Lost, The Edges Are No Longer Parallel and This Is Not Your Country.

MY ONLY MISTAKE IS I'M HOPING
 
'Going into Maladjusted, Morrissey had hoped to bridge the gap between the torchy pop songs of 1994’s Vauxhall and I and the flinty indie rock he’d created with Johnny Marr in the Smiths.'

What is this 'flinty indie rock'? Nothing to do with Fred Flintstone I hope.
 

Trending Threads

Back
Top Bottom