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Johnny
Marr is an English guitarist and singer/songwriter. Perhaps best known as the guitarist for The
Smiths. He's also a prominent producer, producing records for Modest Mouse and R.E.M.'s Peter
Buck. Although he has been in the music industry for years, this is his solo debut album. It
was released in February of 2013 and it's called The Messenger
Starts out with the song The Right Thing Right. The immediacy of the rhythm and the use of
tambourine driving the beat, it sounds like a 60s pop tune. Although it alludes to the
60s, it's not stuck there. It's updated and modernized with the high fidelity production
value and the use of heavier guitars. During the pre chorus I noticed the piano is playing
this repeating riff on the lower end. Little things like that are built up and just create
this wall of sound that completely overtakes you. This song is very poppy yet understated
and it's very intriguing and really hooks you in and makes you interested to hear the
rest of the record.
The first single from the album is the song Upstarts which is another very pop-rock kind
of song. It reminds me of the kind of music radio used to play in the mid to late 90s.
It's that more sophisticated side of pop music. I'm thinking bands like Gin Blossoms or Dishwalla.
Music that has its roots in rock n roll but has catchy guitar hooks and melodies at the
same time. And it kind of walks that line. But I feel like this is an honest approach
to pop music rather than being controlled by some corporation or something. This song
really features some very clean and concise guitar work that feels like they worked really
*** it.
The title track, The Messenger is much more of a mid-tempo kind of rock song. It's very
guitar driven and features some of the best guitar lines on the album. Though the guitar
lines aren't the most technically brilliant pieces or the most flashy, they fit the song
perfectly. And to me that's what really marks a great guitarist is their ability to not
show off, but pick guitar parts that will fit the song. And I think this song is a pretty
good example of that. There aren't many guitar players who understand that, so it's refreshing
to hear a guitarist serve the song. Rather than the other way around.
Perhaps the hardest rocking song on the album is the song Sun & Moon. It's pretty much a
straight-forward kind of rock song with a driving beat and really heavy guitars. This
is probably my favourite song on the album simply because it has a really good groove
with the bass and drums and the guitars just sit perfectly on top. This is a really well
crafted song that if it doesn't get released as a single will definitely go on to be a
hidden gem.
The album ends with the song Word Starts Attack. It's another song that has a lot of heavy
guitars but the drums are playing this sort of off-beat which kind of gives it a funky
almost disco sort of feel. Before the choppy sort of guitar solo, there's a slight breakdown
where you hear the bass playing this sort of pulsing kind of groove. And there are a
lot of different parts to the song which kind of play out like a very short opera. I thought
this was a pretty strong song but it didn't really feel like the end of the album. I kind
of expected one more song because it just kind of ends abruptly.
The production on this album is excellent. It's mixed really well and comes off as very
professional and because he has worked as both a producer and as an artist, he understand
the production side of making an album just as much as the performance and that really
shows. I liked this album and chocked full of really great moments and is really just
a great rock n roll album. So I'm going to give this album an 8/10