Maladjusted is indeed wretched. That crouching, no quiff, 90s era boy band thin sweater pic on the cover was the tip off. God f***ing awful.
Alma Matters is a terrible terrible single; Sunny, Dagenham Dave, and Alma are all tied for worst single in my opinion.
Maladjusted is a boring blur of a song, trying to be "Heroes", ends up as zeros.
Roy's Keen has the corniest Moz lyrics ever, like the retard child of Vicar In A Tutu, too bad it is the only catchy song; but since he deleted it, he should rework the lyrics and re-release it.
Sorrow with its lawyer/whip sound/liar is so cringe worthy and unintentionally hilarious it makes me wanna puke and shit at the same time.
The rest of the songs are beyond bland; bland lyrics, and bland production.
I think the reason there is not one solid or memorable guitar riff, is due to the fact that there were so many great ones on Southpaw Grammar. Say what you will about Moz's lyrics on that album which where pretty silly and lame (with the exception of Southpaw); but the band is terrific, the backing music is terrific, the prog elements and songs lengths are bad, but the core music is great. Which is not the case on Maladjusted. It is as if Alan and Boz knew Moz wouldn't be bringing his A game anymore, so they busted out trifles, just chord progressions with no melodic hooks or riffs. I would be mad too, listen to Honey You Know Where To Find Me, one of Boz's strongest, catchiest riffs, with a totally throw away shit lyric on top.
The only reason Moz plays songs off that album live, is to recreate it's worth in his own eyes. There is a reason he re-released it with a different track listing and cover, because he knows it was awful. He is ashamed of it, why else would he try to "fix" it? Morrissey in his own mind is perfect/wants to be always perfect, he knows...he knows.
He plays Maladjusted and Alma Matters live to say to himself, "See, these aren't so bad, right Mozzer? They didn't singlehandedly put me in exile for several years. They didn't bomb on the singles and album sales charts because they were bad! No, it was bad marketing! They didn't frighten off every record label from my work, even when the bands I helped influence (Blur, Radiohead, Oasis) were doing so well in the industry at the time. It wasn't me, it wasn't my choice of collaborators or my own lyrics that were at fault. It wasn't like I could've crossed over into the mainstream at the time when Brit pop was at its highest popularity ever, no! Just bad luck sent from Mike Joyce Voodoo spells! My fans really love these songs! They don't see them as filler between Everyday and Please, please! These songs are just as classic!"