I loved Viva Hate and the sometimes clumsy songs that came after it. Morrissey went on a commercial and critical ladder that saw him break through in America with Your Arsenal and Vauxhall and I, and although it only made it to #46, he legitimately landed a song in the American Top 100 in 1994.
It would largely be downhill from there in terms of sales and plaudits. If I was older then maybe I would have guessed this would happen. Time always wins and there are arguably a couple of artists who made music for decades without a real stinker (Nick Cave and Tom Waits perhaps) and even those with great later-in-life records ( Dylan, Reed, Cash) who rode a rollercoaster of greatness amidst duds.
I really liked the poorly received 1995 album Southpaw Grammar- an album that for once focused on music more than lyrics and the songs upon it bookended by two near ten minute pieces. 1997s Maladjusted was similarly critically mauled but I played it to death then and still think it has some songs that hold up well.
Morrissey laid dormant for almost a decade. In 2004 he teamed with producer Jerry Finn (Blink-182, Rancid, AFI) and released You Are the Quarry. It stands as a second half start in his solo career. Well regarded, I see the online crowd of a certain age treat it with the reverence older fans had for the Smiths. It’s an age thing. That said, while I don’t hate it, I was less impressed with what I consider a downhill progression.
2006s Ringleader of the Tormentors appeared after what feels an eternity of two years and was produced by Tony Visconti (Bowie, T Rex). I do think it stands as one of his best solo albums.
He reunited with Finn for 2009’s Years of Refusal. I still generally liked his output at this point. It’s a reasonable 12 track 43 minute album but still feels like an album with some great songs and a lot of extra padding. It’d be a career highlight pared down to 8 songs.
The next album is after Finn’s passing and is 2014s World Peace is None of Your Business. Joe Chicarelli (who engineered the Joes Garage and Sheik Yerbouti albums by Frank Zappa) is now his producer. Well received by the press, I find it a bit forgettable. 2017s Low in High School did not get as positive as a reception and I similarly find it uninspiring. As a fan, I reflect back on these and realize that I didn’t spend as much time with these as much as what I normally would have, but I also didn’t seem them worthy of my time. A judgment I doubt I would change.
In 2019, Morrissey made the unusual decision to release an all cover’s album California Sun. I consider it a clunker and one of the truly awful albums to be recorded by a good artist.
He returned the next year with I Am Not A Dog on a Chain. Alain Whyte had been Moz’s main songwriter from 1992 to 2009. Boz Boorer had written songs for each album from 1994 to 2017. The combination of the two have become nearly as revered as Johnny Marr and this was the first album where neither has a songwriting credit. (Boorer does appear on roughly half of the songs).
Songwriting now falls on new band members Jesse Tobias (who briefly was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and played for Alanis Morrissette's band) keyboard player Gustavo Manzur and bassist Mando Lopez (who spent time with the Breeders and Fear).
While not a great album by any means, I did think it was his best album in a decade and the possibility popped up that we may still get a great late era Morrissey album.
Morrissey has spent recent years touring and he has two full albums recorded. Bonfire of Teenagers has been promised since 2023 but seems caught in limbo. Produced by Andrew Watt (Ozzy Osbourne, Rolling Stones, Lady GaGa). The album reportedly has contributions from Iggy Pop, Miley Cyrus and Flea & Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In 2026, he released Make-Up is A Lie again produced by Chiccarelli. Songwriting duties are split between a returning Whyte (who appears on three tracks), Tobias, Manzur, and new addition to the band- keyboardist Camila Grey (from the band Uh Huh Her and Adam Lambert’s band).
In the past, us Morrissey fans would pore over the B-sides. I didn’t often agree with some other fans who preferred them to the official releases but I do think they were often good.
I feel the best material on Make Up is A Lie is only as good as previous B-side material. While his voice is strong, his lyrics are particularly weak. If one looks back to his Smiths work, he often ripped directly from Oscar Wilde, late 50s/early 60s British playwright Shelagh Delaney (who is pictured on Louder Than Bombs) and post war UK kitchen sink dramas. Without those inspirations, his work never really connects.
Opener You’re Right It’s Time sounds like a classic single but what follows is a mixed bag. Music on that track written by Grey, her four contributions may be the album’s strongest. Her “Lester Bangs” is another highlight though it feels like one of those B-sides. The lyrics never quite connect to their potential for me.
“Zoom Zoom the Little Boy” written by Tobias stands out in that it’s upbeat song in what feels like a bunch of dirges throughout the record, but without strong lyrics isn’t particularly memorable. Tobias is responsible for some of my favorite latter era Moz music and it’s a shame that he will probably be remembered as a Whyte/Boorer replacement. That song is followed by Tobias’s second (and only other) contribution here which is another jaunty number “The Night Pop Dropped”.
These songs give it a glammy middle that gives us a glimpse of what potential this album could have been. This middle section also has a cover of Roxy Music’s “Amazona” which is kind of a clunker.
There are some ambitious songs here like "Boulevard" and "Many Icebergs Ago" that go on past the five minute mark but ultimately aren’t very satisfying to me. I have often posited that Morrissey’s solo work would be served well by a more ambitious palate (often using Marc Almond for contrast). I have long given up hope on expecting much from Morrissey outside a standard rock song framework. Perhaps the failure of Southpaw Grammar dissuaded him. Still, one only needs to look at the contrasting praise found on recent albums by Pulp, The Cure and The The for those bands when they have been able to color outside the lines
Old Morrissey would have been spiteful in the most interesting way. “Kerching Kerching” is that on paper but the lyrics are so clunky that it feels like those old B-sides.
Like any number of musicians (cough Billy Corgan) that probably need someone to reign in their biggest failings, it’s a shadow of what it could have been.
When he revisits the unrequited love that made him famous, he is also at his best. “Headache” is a pretty good song with its whispered delivery, it could have been on Vauxhall and I. Similarly “Happy New Tears” is one of his best 2026 songs and fits the mold, though you won’t find it here. You will have to wait for the upcoming Deluxe edition to own it, though (in the meantime, it has been released as a stand alone single).
Separating the art from the artist is a 2026 problem and certainly Morrissey’s sins are less than some artists. It is easy to dismiss his work though when it isn’t good. The two singles that led off that promotional material-the title track and “Notre Dame” are particularly uninspiring- the former, a character sketch that doesn’t seem to accomplish much and the latter- even if it is unhinged conspiracy theory- suffers from the worst crime of all which is being boring.
At one time I would have pictured an elder Morrissey going away every few years and occasionally regaling us with some great latter era records. I think what we will get now is a guy who will bang out records with just enough interesting songs on them to keep me from completely writing him off.
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