BookishBoy
Well-Known Member
Today's song is "He Cried" from the Maladjusted album - another Morrissey/Whyte composition.
What do we think of this one?
That's interesting. In The Boy With The Thorn In His Side he starts by singing 'how can they look into my eyes' then in the next verse 'how can they see the love in our eyes' switching from singing about himself to singing about everyone.I adore this one and it's my favourite one in the whole album.
I think I like the fact that in other songs Morrissey mixed sadness with hope... i.e, you can punch me, you can break my face, you can break my spine, you can play football with my head... but you won't change the way I feel.
This one... there is no hope, there is no escape, there are no actions... except freezing and crying.
I also love a trick that this song, and other songs, has:
Ride our minds
If you must
This "our minds" is fantastic... because he becomes the voice of a collective, so it's a subtle game with the listener... as if there was a collective of people who has the same feeling and he is the voice of them. He did something similar with "Nobody loves us".
I liked this post merely for the superb use of the word 'somnambulistic'.Another song that is far from Morrissey at his best, but it's superior to several of the other tracks on Maladjusted. It does at least have a mature lyric and one or two lines that are thought provoking.
The production and the performance of the musicians is distinctly underwhelming and you can understand why there was such a clamour at the time for Morrissey to work with other collaborators. It's not terrible, but it's all rather sedate and somnambulistic. It's also another of those songs where you feel like Morrissey is trying to force a tune with his vocal melodies.
I think the feelings that we all have towards these songs are influenced by our circumstances when we first heard them. I remember being deeply worried when this album was announced due to the absence of interesting lyrics on Southpaw Grammar and the NME's initial preview only naming the songs Alma Matters, Roy's Keen and Satan Rejected My Soul. Those three titles suggested that Morrissey might genuinely be entirely finished, as plenty of journalists were predicting anyway, so it was a relief to just have any songs about serious subjects.
I recall that some of the letters to True to You indicated similar sentiments and the general tone seemed to be "at least the lyrics are back", even if I don't think anyone considered it to be his best work.
In the poll on the other board it ranked 203rd from 264 solo tracks.
Usually, Lillywhite was excellent with Morrissey, and one of his best producers, but this is one of several songs where I think the production lets it down. The music is actually very good, and if you listen out for it, Alain's guitar line is intricate and enjoyable - but it's done no favours by the cloying, middle-of-the-road production, which buries it in the mix. The whole thing sounds sluggish, as though it's had a fluffy pillow pressed against it until all the life has left it - instead of feeling vibrant, the whole thing sounds like middle-aged Dad rock - inoffensive and bland. There's a good song in there somewhere, it's just struggling to get out.
It's not Morrissey's greatest lyric either, but it is at least heartfelt. I'm not sure about the whole 'He cry-yi-yiiiiied' bit in the chorus though - it kinda makes him sound like a petulant 12 year old girl. [6 out of 10]