Albums by this artist

My Early Burglary Years (1998)

Maladjusted (1997)

Roy's Keen (1997)

Southpaw Grammar (1995)

Morrissey

Roy's Keen

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

Morrissey Roy's Keen Island, 1997 RiYL: The Smiths, Gene, The Sundays

As Morrissey himself would tell you, the best things come to those who wait. U.S. fans waited five years before his 1997 tour finally crossed the Atlantic, but the quality of those performances and the subsequently released import-only "Roy's Keen" single made it worthwhile.

"Roy's Keen" is one of the best tracks on Morrissey's 1997 Maladjusted album, spotlighting a smiling, clumsy window washer amidst rough, minor-key riffing by guitarists Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer. With typical pointed wit and I-can't-have-you frustration, Morrissey sings "Roy is a star and I am a satellite / but that's all right."

B-sides have been a Morrissey forte since his first solo single in 1988, and the artist has compiled enough of these sonic treats to fill two discs worth of music. Indeed, "Lost" is one of the most beautiful, complete songs Morrissey has ever penned. His voice sounds great, and for a change, strings and looped synth lines amplify rather than hinder the singer's laments.

"The Edges Are No Longer Parallel" happens to sound exactly like Maladjusted's "Wide To Receive" save for a slightly altered tempo and chorus. Acoustic strumming gives way to a rousing, electric guitar-slathered finish where Morrissey repeatedly proclaims "My only mistake is that I'm hoping."

Here's hoping that, at this late date, there's more music like this to be tapped from Morrissey's downtrodden repertoire.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"