Make-up Is A Lie

Make-Up Is a Lie is a love letter to Paris: schmaltzy, befuddling, arresting, but, most of all, Morrissey.

The first five songs suggest a great late-period work for the 66-year-old Morrissey, and although Side A stumbles into a second half that staggers a bit before its high-note finish, Make-Up Is a Lie is the intentional work of a man still striving for pop mana, ever true to who he is, for better or worse.

Make-Up is a Lie shows signs of progress and signs of regression; artful touches and clunking gaffs; soaring tunes and leaden lyrics.

There are some pretty decent tunes on his 14th album, Make-Up is a Lie. .... But instead of falling face-first into music as we once did and enjoying a good old wallow in self-pity, we must now approach it as a minefield.

Sometimes predictably frustrating, sometimes pleasingly fresh, Make-up Is A Lie is a reminder that Morrissey probably couldn’t stop at this stage of the game, much less change. [Mar 2026, p.100]

Morrissey’s singular personality is on full display, and just as uncompromising as ever, but sitting through an entire album of his musings and moanings circa 2026 is less than fun.

Flashes of quality make the album all the more frustrating. If the lyrics came anywhere near his halcyon days, the shortcomings might matter less.

Mostly, he avoids dicey subject matter for solid autobiographical songwriting - see "Lester Bangs" - and, less happily, sullen self-pity. [Mar 2026, p.76]

The most devoted of devotees will get a kick out of this album, but even they will struggle to ignore its flaws, or how genuinely fed up – rather than his usual showboating – Morrissey sounds at times.

Any substantial appeal Make-Up Is a Lie holds is just a hangover from the very same love letters: residual affection for the hallucinated stranger who wrote some songs you may have once leaned upon.

Make-Up Is a Lie rarely rises above the level of a Facebook-posting uncle who watches too much Tucker Carlson. ..... Which is a shame, since, musically speaking, this is one of his most musically eclectic albums in years, proof that he still has a sharp ear for arrangements.