Johnny Marr’s contribution to music is undeniable and he’s not done yet, not by a long shot. The former Smith’s guitarist is releasing his first solo album, “The Messenger” on February 26th.
Photo by Jon Shard
The release of The Messenger marks a significant milestone in Marr’s distinguished career. His work with the highly influential 80′s band The Smith’s is legendary. He then went on and turned out prolific work with The The (personally some of my favorite work by him), The Pretenders, The Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Modest Mouse, Talking Heads, and Beck, to name a few.
About the album, Marr stated: “The underlying idea of the record is my experience of living in Britain. When you’re away from your home city you’re more compelled to write about it, whether that’s because you’re homesick or you’ve got more objectivity, I don’t know. Growing up in the city influences you, and as I’ve grown older, I’ve continued to see beauty, energy and stories in it.”
The 12-song set captures Marr’s musical vision exactly as he imagined, featuring his signature guitar and vocals front and center on a sound which mixes elements of angular art rock, indie and rock n’ roll. The Messenger was written and produced by Marr himself. Based in Portland, Oregon since 2005, Marr returned to the U.K. in early 2012 to commence work on the album. Recorded in Manchester and Berlin, it was mastered at Abbey Road by Frank Artwright who recently collaborated with Marr on the remastering work for The Smiths’ box set Complete.
Like millions of others, BLURPPY is a massive fan of the music that this man has either created or help create. His sound is instantly recognizable and immediately takes me back to my youth with fond memories. This is easily our most anticipated album of the year and it is only January! The Messenger is available for preorder now on iTUNES.
The Messenger Track List
- The Right Thing Right
- I Want The Heartbeat
- European Me
- Upstarts
- Lockdown
- The Messenger
- Generate! Generate!
- Say Demesne
- Sun & Moon
- The Crack Up
- New Town Velocity
- Word Starts Attack
As an added bonus I have included a cover he did for BBC2 that aired on Slicing Up Eyeballs of “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want“. The guitar work sounds so incredibly beautiful, it almost brought me to tears. Check it out and see if you like it as well.
You can follow Johnny on TWITTER, FACEBOOK or check out his WEBSITE to get info about new releases and tour plans. Check out this great interview he did with Stereogum. He talks about why he decided to do a solo album after all this time, all the previous bands he has played with, and reminds us that even Led Zeppelin often sounded terrible in rehearsals.
