Morrissey has already canceled two concerts in California in 2026, and it’s January 9, but nothing has been able to stop the release of his new single, ‘Make-Up is a Lie’.
The song, available from this Friday, previews a completely new Morrissey album that is not one of the two that he has had saved for years, ‘Bonfire of Teenagers’ and ‘Without Music the World Dies’. Morrissey has revealed the full tracklist, but the rest of the details of the album will be known soon, unless Morrissey thinks twice.
Written on a dramatic, typically “Smithsian” melody, the nice ‘Make-Up is a Lie’ contains no more mystery, as a pop-rock song, than that of containing mandolin and violin arrangements, reinforcing the French inspiration of the song, evident in the lyrics.
‘Make-Up Is a Lie’ is another narrative composition by Morrissey. Set in Paris, it tells a sad story divided into three episodes. The narrator, during his stay in the French capital, visits a lonely and secluded poet in her house, immersed in a “sad silence.” The woman, who senses her age, cries when she discovers that “the makeup is a lie.” Time has also passed mercilessly for her and, in the third verse, we witness her death, ten years later.
In the last verse before the final double chorus, Morrissey visits the woman at her grave and reads the numbers “1, 2, 3, 4, 5” engraved on the tombstone, perhaps representing the simple – and cruel – sequence of time.
We remind you that Morrissey performs in Spain in 2026: the announced dates are March 12 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, March 14 at the Auditorium in Zaragoza and March 16 at the Cartuja Center in Seville.
