Having helped define The Smiths and bolster the sound of
Modest Mouse, legendary English guitarist Johnny Marr is finally releasing his
first solo album. On The Messenger, a
Britpoppy-garage-rocking-impossibly-cool debut, the 49 year old grooves with defiant
youthfulness as he displays talents honed to perfection during decades of stellar
work. The album provides Marr with the focus he deserves and in turn Marr
provides listeners with a fun collection of songs as solid and straightforward
as any artist could hope to release.
Everything The
Messenger delivers is unapologetically familiar. Lovers of late seventies
to mid-eighties New Wave or bands like The Stone Roses, Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Cure, Simple Minds, INXS, and The Cult will find plenty to adore. The record’s
derivative ear candy, as addictive as it is unoriginal, is nostalgically evocative
of just-plain-good music from eras and scenes Marr contributed to. The Messenger finds a great
instrumentalist doing what he has always done, adding slick personal vocals
into the mix for extra effect.
Though Marr’s voice is more relaxed and less rich than his
former bandmate, Morrissey, it contains its own streetwise assurance. The
lyrics on The Messenger are
intelligently composed, largely concerned with communication breakdown, even if
they are not as strange and urgent as those found on a Smiths album. The songs
themselves, however, often thrust forward in sensual lunges with an unrestrained
vivacity The Smiths never had much interest in, topping the classic band in
terms of sheer energy level.
On “Word Starts Attack,” Marr sings, “All the things that
the new are promised has made things that are not for us.” If this is a
statement on popular trends in the music industry, The Messenger itself may be an ideal antidote for those seeking an
escape from the Top 40. It is not a
Smiths record. It is not high art. But it does return rock n’ roll to a much
much better place.
Grade: B+
