We got to hear the new Morrissey Make-up Is A Lie album in its entirety a week before the official release at County Line Records in Keller, TX. They had some Morrissey ephemera for attendees and had some drawings for t-shirts for the new album as well as some original Viva Hate cards. I won a shirt, score for my son!
So far, Morrissey has released three singles from the album with his cover of Roxy Music’s “Amazona” just being released the day before. The prior singles were the title track and “Notre Dame”. Morrissey has performed all three of these songs live on his current European tour. Here is a recording or “Notre Dame” live in London.
More on Morrissey’s First Album Since 2020
Make-Up Is A Lie is Moz’s first new release in nearly six years as The Bonfire of the Teenagers was shelved due to disputes with Capitol Records. Morrissey bought the rights to that album and hopefully it will be released on his new/old label Sire Records soon.
The tracklist of Make-Up Is A Lie is as follows:
Side 1
1. You’re Right, It’s Time
2. Make-Up Is A Lie
3. Notre-Dame
4. Amazona
5. Headache
6. Boulevard
Side 2
7. Zoom Zoom the Little Boy
8. The Night Pop Dropped
9. Kerching Kerching
10. Lester Bangs
11. Many Icebegs Ago
12. The Monsters of Pig Alley
My favorites besides the first two singles, the title track and “Notre-Dame”, were the opening track “Your Right, It’s Time”, “Headache”, “The Night Pop Dropped” and “The Monsters of Pig Alley”. I did pre-order the Zoetrope vinyl while there, which will come with a slip mat as a pre-order bonus.
I was able to finally see a full Morrissey concert in 2024 after three attempts in the prior 31 years. I’ll write a full blog post soon about my Morrissey concert experiences (or lack thereof!) in my series about seeing artists in concert decades apart. Here is a video I took from that 2024 concert.
Overall Thoughts on the Morrissey Make-Up Is A Lie Album
Overall, I thought it was a decent album, though I wasn’t particularly keen on “Zoom Zoom..” or “Many Icebergs Ago”. I think “Notre-Dame” is one of his best recent memory and as I mentioned earlier there were some other tracks I enjoyed. To appreciate Morrissey best, you really have to listen to things multiple times and dig into his lyrics as they are often layered and have a lot of references. Though, to be honest, I’m more looking forward to the Bonfire of Teenagers album as I was able to hear four of its songs live.
