Morrissey has a new album and fans are confused as to how they should feel. I Am Not A Dog On A Chain is solid late-period Moz, with robust production by his latest ongoing collaborator Joe Chiccarelli (Spoon, The Shins, Tori Amos).

Buuuut there is still the sticky issue of Stephen Patrick’s well-documented far right views. He popped up on the Jimmy Fallon show wearing a badge advertising the For Britain party (headbangers shunned by Nigel Farage for their extremism). And he has accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of being unable to “talk properly”. To all of this we can now add his one-way feud with The Guardian, as trumpeted by his new line of “Fuck The Guardian” merch (an actual thing).

How do you get all that out of your head whilst grooving to his thoroughly agreeable new record, which Moz himself has not inaccurately hailed as “the very best of me”? It’s impossible which is why, as a Smiths diehard, you may undergo a succession of mild out-of-body experiences as the top-drawer jangle pop of ‘Jim Jim Falls’ and single ‘Bobby, Don’t You Think They Know?’ washes over you.

His humour has weathered the years, at least. “Time will mould you and craft you,” he croons darkly. “But when you’re looking away it will slide up and shaft you.” That’s the opening line to closer, ‘My Hurling Days Are Done’. It’s in the rich Morrissey tradition of wry dirges and we can always do with more indie icons referencing the greatest sport in the world. But it’s so very odd enjoying this album knowing the opinions of the increasingly marginalised figure behind it.

Listen to I Am Not A Dog On A Chain on Spotify!