Morrissey has unveiled a dramatic new song, “Love Is on Its Way Out,” from his upcoming album, I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, out March 20th via BMG.
The track boasts cavernous drums and a prickly synth arpeggio that periodically veers into atmospheric spaces while still steadily building to a climactic peak. Morrissey’s vocals carry their characteristic heft and his lyrics seem less about heartbreak — as the title might suggest — than global chaos: “Love is broken down, it’s on its way out,” he sings, “Did you see the sad rich/Hunting down, shooting down elephants and lions?”
“Love Is on Its Way Out” marks the second single from I Am Not a Dog on a Chain, following “Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know?” which features R&B great Thelma Houston. Morrissey recorded I Am Not a Dog in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, with producer Joe Chiccarelli. The LP marks Morrissey’s first album of original music since 2017’s Low in High School. He dropped his covers album California Son in 2019.
Amid the steady stream of music he’s released over the past few years, Morrissey has garnered increasing scrutiny for his politics, particularly an endorsement of the far-right party, For Britain, which was founded by the anti-Islam activist Anne Marie Waters (last year, he performed on The Tonight Show wearing a For Britain pin).