What if we judged Morrissey’s Make-Up is a Lie on the music alone?

Fortunately for a singer sickened by mediocrity, it might be impossible

What Morrissey loyalists don’t understand about any backlash that has come the singer’s way in the wake of his increasingly right-wing views is that it comes from people who loved him too. To crow that people have “always had it in for him anyway” is complete trash: The Smiths were and are critically lauded; Morrissey was an outsider icon and a generational wit and lyricist. The people who have distanced themselves from him and are the loudest about doing so are those for whom he has meant the most. The hurt fans who invested so much in what he appeared to stand for, who thought – and still think – the world of the music. There are millions of casual Kanye fans and zero casual fans of The Smiths and Morrissey. The love is either devotional or you’re someone who has never given the band or the man a second thought. And so Morrissey has been held to a higher account by those who’ve left his church.

Even by Morrissey’s standards there’s been a lot of wound-licking between his last album …