release date: Feb. 25, 2022
format: digital (16 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Johnny Marr & James Doviak
label: BMG - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Spirit Power and Soul" - 2. "Receiver" - 7. "Sensory Street" - 10. "Night and Day" - 14. "Ghoster"
4th solo studio album from former guitarist in The Smiths, Johnny Marr, follows a little more than 3½ years after the album Call the Comet (June 2018). It's made in a collaboration with producer James Doviak, who has featured on Marr's last three albums and is co-producer on all Marr's four solos. Marr and Doviak both featured on the album All for a Reason by the band Haven in 2004 and the two have since worked closely together.
Marr is clearly inspired by the harmony-driven Pop productions of the 1960s - with a preference for Phil Spector's sound universe - and he has released music in a mix combining traits from pop / rock and jangle pop. These signature styles are also some of the most obvious ingredients you meet on this one. The album has already been met by positive reviews, especially from the British Isles, though I'm not entirely convinced. By all means, it's nicely sounding, and it's altogether a well-made production, but it's not exactly highly original, and it's a little hard to point to Marr's distinctiveness on an album that most of all sounds like something his former songwriter colleague Morrissey could have made. It may be a little more uptempo and rock-shaped than what Morrissey usually fabricates, but the vocals, arrangements and even the rhymes sound a lot like from the aforementioned neighbourhood. Admittedly, Marr has not always represented the best vocal performances, but here he succeeds stronger than usual. What you don't get is a personal expression, which could provide us with more than a mix of something that has been made - many times before.
Not really recommended.
