Morrissey hasn’t really updated his sound since the 1990s. Even then, it often seemed slightly out of step with the moment. ‘Make-Up Is a Lie’, his 14th solo album, does little to change that impression: the same swooning croon, the same melodramatic arrangements, the same sense of a performer locked inside a self-constructed world.
Opener You’re Right, It’s Time sets the tone with churning post-punk guitars and a sturdy bassline that wouldn’t have felt out of place on one of his mid-90s records. At 66, he is still a striking vocalist — that baritone remains theatrical and velvety — but the lyric circles familiar grievances about censorship and misunderstanding. It’s classic Morrissey posture: the persecuted outsider pleading to be heard while standing centre stage.
The most notorious moment arrives with Notre-Dame, an electronic number sunk by its conspiracy-tinged lyric about the 2019 cathedral fire.
Musically it’s quite catchy — it sounds like it was on Texas’ ‘White on Blonde’, always a good thing — but the song collapses under the weight of its own hokey suspicion.
Elsewhere, the record briefly finds safer ground. Morrissey’s cover of Amazona by Roxy Music allows him to luxuriate in pure melodrama, his voice sweeping grandly through Bryan Ferry’s art-rock theatrics. His interpretive instincts remain strong when the lyrical baggage isn’t his own.
Likewise Lester Bangs, a wistful tribute to the late rock critic, which carries a touch of old-school Morrissey charm, jangling guitars framing a rare moment of reflective warmth. Still, these flashes only underline the broader problem. The musical framework — part indie jangle, part loungey synth-pop — feels preserved in amber. Morrissey is both an icon and an iconoclast, but this album lacks the rapier wit or vaulting lyricism that made him occasionally irresistible. We’re subsequently left with something dreary.
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