Recently, I found myself thinking about Morrissey and that inevitable question: what is he really in 2026? An untouchable icon or just a guy who simply aged poorly? Because he just released Make-Up Is a Lie and, honestly, it’s a mess. An album full of naive nostalgia, internet conspiracy theories, no spark. Nothing exciting. Straight-up foolish.

Look, nobody expected him at 65 to release another Viva Hate or Vauxhall and I. Those albums from the 90s and 2000s were monumental. But when Morrissey announces something new, there’s always that expectation, you know? It’s as if his fans think he might return to the magic of The Smiths or those early solo works. Instead, we got this: completely bland boomer rock.

The most ironic thing is that throughout 2025, he canceled about 50% of his shows. Twice canceled in Buenos Aires. Excuses about health that sound almost comical. Noel Gallagher was surprised to say he ran into Morrissey at a bar the same night he canceled a show due to a supposed angina. The guy specializes in that: waking up one morning and deciding he doesn’t feel like it.

But here’s what nobody expected: in 2024, he revealed he had rejected a multimillion-dollar offer to reunite The Smiths because Johnny Marr, his longtime enemy, ignored him. Later, it came out that it was all just Morrissey’s invention. A media mess that sparked cross-claims about political stances, supposed rapprochement with Reform UK, all that.

And that’s where it gets weird. Morrissey built his reputation attacking Margaret Thatcher, criticizing capitalism, writing songs like The Queen Is Dead. He dedicated entire tracks to political brutality. When Thatcher died in 2013, he published a fierce open letter. That was Morrissey: the incisive, sensitive, politically aware critic.

Now he talks about the dictatorship of thought control, attacks The Guardian for a hate campaign against him, sued an internet user for labeling him racist. What is he really? Impossible to know with a single logic. Maybe we shouldn’t try to understand, justify, or condemn him. Just listen.

But Make-Up Is a Lie is there. And you don’t know what to do with that. Maybe the best thing is to let it pass, act as if nothing happened. Sometimes silence is the best tribute to what someone once was.