Cancelled shows and a new album: Morrissey’s secretive comeback

Smiths fans of the world, unite – Bigmouth is about to strike again. Morrissey will release his first new single for four years, Make-Up Is a Lie, on Friday. The single will be followed in February by a new album of the same name (or You’re Right, It’s Time, according to earlier reports). Songs on the album include Notre-Dame, about the fire that almost destroyed Notre-Dame cathedral, and The Night Pop Dropped, a seeming tribute to one of Morrissey’s musical heroes, Iggy Pop.

The album has been produced by Morrissey’s long-term producer Joe Chiccarelli, who has won Grammy awards for his work with the White Stripes and Michael Bublé, among others. Musically, going by the snippets I’ve heard, the album features flashes of funky, Doors-like synths (The Night Pop Dropped) and stripped back, glitchy trip-hoppy backbeats (Make-Up Is a Lie).

The album also features a cover version of Roxy Music’s 1973 song Amazona. Last June, Morrissey told Polish magazine Teraz Rock that he’d sent his version to Roxy guitarist Phil Manzanera, who had called it “phenomenal”. Morrissey declared himself “thrilled” with the album as a whole. “It’s breathtaking from start to finish,” he said.

Other song titles include The Monsters of Pig Alley, Lester Bangs, Zoom Zoom the Little Boy and You’re Right, It’s Time. Lyrically, Notre-Dame could prove controversial. In it, referencing the building, Morrissey sings that “we know who tried to kill you”, before pointedly declaring: “Before investigations they said, ‘This is not terrorism’”. Is he suggesting that terrorism could in fact have been behind the 2019 Paris blaze? (Investigators believe the fire was started by a cigarette or a short circuit in the electrical system.)