Johnny Marr
The Messenger


4.0
excellent

Review

by breakingthefragile USER (128 Reviews)
February 28th, 2013 | 100 replies


Release Date: 2013 | Tracklist

Review Summary: He hasn’t lost a step.

After spending his post-Smiths time as a member of bands such as Modest Mouse, The The, and Electronic, guitarist Johnny Marr has finally decided to put out an album of work completely of his own making. The real draw of his debut solo album The Messenger is Marr’s detailed guitar work. From the compelling pace of the shimmering strumming in “European Me” and “The Right Thing Right”, to the post-britpop vibe in the chords of cuts like “Lockdown”, and “Generate! Generate!” the hooks here are urgent and immediately contagious. The Messenger is clearly identifiable as an album that’s atmosphere lives in the ‘90s, but it’s an album that sounds authentic as if it’s straight out of an era, as opposed to sounding dry and outdated. Indeed, Marr does sound twenty years younger; making spry English rock music with bouncing hooks and a lively mood. The Messenger benefits from sounding like an album that was made in the prime of the Madchester scene; released while the likes of The Verve were at their peak, and in the process, it acts as an album that showcases Marr’s strengths as a musician at their finest and leanest, as well as representing the abilities he's toned over years of working with a wide array of other artists.



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user ratings (59)
3.3
great
other reviews of this album
Wanderlustforlife (4)
The man that was called a "God Like Genius" and ex- "Smiths" guitarist delivers....



Comments:Add a Comment 
breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Really short review, but I think I summed it up nicely.

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


sweet been jamming this all week was gonna review but now I don't have to phew

european me and lockdown and new town velocity are so good

breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Dude, same, I've been addicted to this album for the past few days, didn't expect it to be this good.

ohfoxxxycole
February 28th 2013


4339 Comments


FUCK

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


yeah his voice isn't bad, he sounds a bit lost on stuff like upstarts but he sounds awesome on lockdown

like I would obviously prefer morrissey's vox on this but johnny does alright

I like how his singing isn't too high in the mix and he mostly lets his guitar do the talking

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


foxxxy what's wrong man

ohfoxxxycole
February 28th 2013


4339 Comments


i just saw this on the front page and thought it was a tommygun review

this review is ok too i guess invisipos

SgtPepper
Emeritus
February 28th 2013


4510 Comments


Sometimes, there isn't much that's needed to be said to give a good description of an album (An approach I've yet to master). Good work, Alex. As a Smiths fan, I'll look into this.

breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I wasn't aware you were a Smiths fan man. You'll love this album. I can pretty much rec this to anyone actually, it's so damn catchy. And thanks, my only worry about this review is if I didn't get descriptive enough. I was kind of going for like a magazine column style.

blastOFFitsPARTYtime
February 28th 2013


1976 Comments


Didn't even know this was a-happening. Shame on me.

blastOFFitsPARTYtime
February 28th 2013


1976 Comments


One minor gripe - 'former Smiths frontman'?

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


I've been constructing a review in my head all week listening to this so I might as well still write something like 500 words or so with a few more details

I like this review a lot man so I'll try to do something a bit different to avoid redundancy

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


but yeah great album i'd 3.8 it if I could

breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

@tommy I eagerly await to read it man.



@blastOFF That's a big error on my part, my bad. Good catch.

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


alex what are your fave tunes on this?

blastOFFitsPARTYtime
February 28th 2013


1976 Comments


All's well that ends well. Imma have to get on this ASAP.

breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Top 5 tracks for me I'd have to say would be:



European Me

The Messenger

Lockdown

World Starts Attack

Generate! Generate!



Not in that order, but those are the highlights for me.

Really hard to choose though since each track is just so

good. My least favorite track would have to be Sun and

Moon though.

klap
Emeritus
February 28th 2013


12409 Comments


the last sentence is sort of abrupt/fragment no?

breakingthefragile
February 28th 2013


3104 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah, it is. Should I throw a semicolon in front of it or just get rid of it altogther?

tommygun
February 28th 2013


27108 Comments


sweet man mine would be

european me
lockdown
new town velocity
generate! generate! (verses suck a bit but there's so much sweet guitar)

the only one I can't get into is upstarts like it's ok but it has a pretty bad vocal melody

the guitar tones on this are so nice though I love his playing so much



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