Maladjusted

The classic Morrissey sound combines earnest vocals, barbed lyrics and guitar pop that alternates between chiming beauty and glam brutality. <i>Maladjusted</i> both plays by that rule book (“Roy’s Keen”, “Alma Matters”) and throws it aside. “Ambitious Outsiders” is bleak chamber pop with a sincerity matched in twin laments “Trouble Loves Me” and “Wide to Receive”. But the album’s soft centre is locked away by the punchy one-two finale of “He Cried” and the bullish “Satan Rejected My Soul”, a supremely Morrissey anthem to self-pity.