Johnny Marr “Call the Comet” 2018. Marr released his third solo album a couple of weeks ago but the vinyl was delayed a bit so I finally got my copy yesterday, though I’ve had the digital download on fairly heavy rotation since its release on June 15th. NME calls it “Marr’s most assured solo effort to date” and The Guardian says Call the Comet is “a resounding success.” Other publications have some gripes about his voice but I have zero problems with his singing. He’s not Morrissey and isn’t trying to be. I really love Call the Comet; it is deliciously comfortable – as a Smith fan since the 80′s, Marr’s guitar melodies wrap me in a warm blanket embrace without feeling nostalgic. I will admit that my some of my favorite tracks do have rather large Smith-echoes: “The Tracers” calls to mind the urgency of “What Difference Does It Make?” and on “Hi Hello” (oh oh I love this song so much) Marr cops to the overt “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” references. I also really like the lead track “Rise,” the neo-psychedelic swirls of “Day In Day Out,” the slow-burn of “Walk Into the Sea” and the stomping “Bug.”

The current global political upheavals inspired Marr to write Call the Comet. He told NME “This time around, I had to imagine a society, rather than just report what I see. Rather than feeling like it was too bleak as reportage or commentary about what I see outside, it’s kept the psycho-geography of the first two records but I had to reimagine it. I don’t want those fuckers contaminating my creativity.”