Album Review: I Am Not a Dog on a Chain by Morrissey

"I do not read newspapers, they are troublemakers," sings Morrissey on the title track of I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, echoing the sentiment he laid bare on "Spent the Day in Bed," the first single pulled from 2017's Low in High School, which was his last album of original material prior to this 2020 set. Morrissey is working once again with Joe Chiccarelli -- the pair struck up a collaboration back in 2014 with World Peace Is None of Your Business -- and picking up the threads they left hanging on Low in High School, pushing the sounds and ideas that hovered in the margins into the center. The shift is apparent when "Jim Jim Falls" kicks off the album with a frenetic electronic squawk, the funkiest -- and synthiest -- sound to be heard on a Morrissey album in many years, if not ever.

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The intoxicating, mostly-celibate, square-jawed Steven Patrick Morrissey carries on. Crotchety and vegetarian, and here on the release of his 13th studio album, Moz remains a bitchy, fabulous sulk turned something of a red-pill pharmacist, dealing anyone within earshot a long list of forces to be wary of. Across the past few decades, these include, but aren't limited to: Muslims, Britain's immigration policy writ large, the editorial staff of The Guardian, global safety precautions surrounding COVID-19, allegiance toward political parties other than one headed by someone with the "guts to be honest about Islam," et cetera, et cetera.

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