The Messenger

**The recent trend for old-timer dad-rock comebacks has ranged considerably from justified additions to the canon (David Bowie) to cynical cash-ins (Rolling Stones – yeah, I said it). What makes Johnny Marr’s _The Messenger_ stand out is that, despite becoming a guitar legend in his own lifetime with The Smiths (and, y’know, all those other bands) – this is his first solo effort, which he pulls off with conviction.**

Marr himself admits that for this album he is “not out to re-invent the wheel”, and the result sounds a lot like **The Smiths** in their mid-80s prime, minus **Morrissey**’s effete crooning, and plus a beefier, more brazen rock-n’-roll drive. All the techniques that Marr is famous for are employed again here: overlapping strums under picked melodies, with lots of clever noodling in between to keep things interesting. Marr’s layering and attention to detail suggests he feels more at home in a studio, where he can record, ad lib and re-record guitar lines until he is fully contented. But that doesn’t stop _The Messenger_ being an album full of unpretentious and knowingly crowd-pleasing rock anthems.

This is immediately obvious from the brash, swaggering opening track, ‘The Right Thing Right’, which sets the tone for the album with its bold, triumphant opening chords that soon move headlong into a pounding verse riff. Other tracks that share this same confidence and dynamism are definitely the album’s highlights, including ‘Generate! Generate!’ with its memorable guitar melody, and the flange-y ‘The Crack Up’.

The weaker songs are mainly those which rely too heavily on Marr’s songwriting and voice, which draws the focus from his energetic riffs and general guitarmanship, which are his strong suits. The two longest songs on the album, the five-minutes-plus ‘Say Demesne’ and ‘New Town Velocity’, feel slow and dirge-like compared to the others, and their use of synth strings, presumably for a fuller sound, is a weak replacement for Marr’s guitar.

Marr is not looking to try anything drastically new here, and this is both _The Messenger_’s biggest strength and its most prominent weakness. On the one hand, Marr should be applauded for sticking to his recognisable signature sound, with this record firmly marking his territory. On the other hand, other British guitar bands have been influenced by his style and taken it in different directions (**Palma Violets**, even **Franz Ferdinand**), which leaves Marr looking a bit like an unevolved indie-rock dinosaur. While unlikely to attract a new fangroup, _The Messenger_ still has far more to offer than mere **Smiths** nostalgia, and can be happily air-guitared to without brandishing imaginary gladioli.

Similar to: The Smiths, Modest Mouse

MP3: ‘The Right Thing Right’, ‘The Crack Up’