Morrissey - I Am Not a Dog on a Chain

Pitchfork 61

Mildly captivating, occasionally repetitive, and frequently ridiculous, the 13th studio album from the fabulous sulk turned red-pill pharmacist is Moz’s vision of radical truth-telling.

The Guardian 40

(BMG)
The former Smiths man appoints himself as a bold truth-teller but fails to see some glaring truths about himself

Morrissey’s official channels have recently been stressing the 60-year-old’s virility, citing reviews from his US tour that praise his “ageless” voice and undimmed power (albeit from little-known publications).

The sales patter makes sense given his declining status – though it’s at odds with his new album, which finds Morrissey lamenting the ravages of age: how time “will slide up and shaft you” on My Hurling Days Are Done; how he considers himself an “out of tune” violin on The Secret of Music, a banal yet absurd list of instruments and their respective qualities that unspools like Michael Gove reading Dr Seuss.