I think that is not an outrageous criticism. It seems level headed. She stated she is a fan.
No?
"So Morrissey has taken it into his own hands to rewrite his past.
How can you reasonably describe participating in the reissue of two of your own albums as "taking it into his own hands to rewrite the past", as if that was some sort of conspiracy?
He does this not only by flagging up these albums as lost masterpieces, but by changing the order of the tracks and the CD sleeves.
"lost masterpieces?" They've been available for a decade, to anyone interested - the only way they have been lost is if you've been ignoring them. In the liner notes to SP at least, I dare her to find anything to suggest Morrissey is flagging it up as a masterpiece. If anything the tone of his remarks seem very restrained to me, sometimes even apologetic. Attributing the track changes to such motives is just empty speculation.
That won't convince those previously unconvinced; fans, meanwhile, may wonder if he is doing anything more than diminishing the bond they have made with his music, as well as the value he places on his own work."
Won't it? Will they? How the f*** does she know, has she been calling around polling people? This is crap journalism of the worst sort, in my opinion - she is simply putting a negative spin on it, for no compelling reason, and way beyond what her own dislike of the albums justify.
If she has a point, it is this: Southpaw and Maladjusted were crap. By bringing them up again, he is showing such bad judgment that it's actually an insult to us, for which we'll make him pay (
diminishing the bond they have made with his music). If he insists they are not crap, that means he doesn't care about his own music (
diminishing the value he places on his own work).
That is not a reasonable point of view at all - it's a sneaky, underhand, devious smearjob at worst and a stunningly badly thought-through piece at best. Southpaw and Maldjusted were not crap, or so at least many of us think. And even if it was, she would not be justified in the assumptions she makes and the conclusions she draws.