There are moments when a legendary artist puts out a mediocre record and you simply prefer to look the other way. But when that artist is Morrissey, well, things change. We’re talking about one of the most influential songwriters of the last 45 years, someone who shaped the sensibility of an entire generation of listeners. And there it is, his new work, Make-Up Is a Lie, which is basically everything you didn’t expect: naively nostalgic, packed with conspiracy theories pulled from the internet, dull, no sparkle, no emotion, outright stupid.

Morrissey is 65 years old. Nobody was asking him to repeat the magic of Viva Hate, Vauxhall and I, or You Are the Quarry. Those records were milestones, especially after what The Smiths was. But when a new work of this kind arrives, there’s always an expectation, you know? It’s that little tingle of knowing that someone of that stature is still on the field. What came was something else: completely lifeless boomer rock.

What’s interesting is that while he was putting out this album, during 2025 he canceled about half of his scheduled shows. Twice in a row he was going to play in Buenos Aires and twice he backed out. Professionally, it’s a disaster, but there’s something almost admirable in the idea that someone can simply decide not to do something because they don’t feel like it. Morrissey became an expert at this: he gets up one morning, cancels a concert for a supposed (so-called sore throat, so supposedly alleged that even Noel Gallagher from Oasis told others about, surprised, after running into him in a bar the same night as the canceled show).

The guy has always had that mystery, that misunderstood sensitivity that keeps him perched on a pedestal. Not long ago, in late 2024, he said he had turned down a million-dollar offer to reunite The Smiths because Johnny Marr, his old enemy, ignored it. Marr replied that he isn’t interested in sharing the stage with him due to his current political stances. Then it came to light that it was all a lie—an invention by Morrissey to stir up an internal feud that had been sleeping for decades.

And here comes the weird part. Today’s Morrissey talks about the dictatorship of single thought, constantly attacks The Guardian, accusing them of a hate campaign against him, and sued internet users for fabricating his image as a racist. But this is the same guy who, in the ’80s, mocked Margaret Thatcher, who wrote Margaret on the Guillotine, who the British police investigated under the Explosive Substances Act for considering him a threat. When Thatcher died in 2013, he published an open letter calling her a terrorist.

So is he a fascist or not? Probably there’s no point trying to understand him in terms of single logic. Morrissey has always been a walking contradiction. Maybe the best thing is simply to listen to him, let him be what he is, without trying to justify him or condemn him.

But well, Make-Up Is a Lie is still there. And you don’t really know what to do with that. Maybe the best thing is to let it pass unnoticed.