«The Age Of Everything» is Johnny Marr’s fifth solo album: ten songs written in London, tested on tour and recorded in Manchester.
Johnny Marr says he has always thought of his records as something halfway between a stained glass window and an abstract painting, with bright colors and surfaces that demand attention.
He doesn’t know what to do with the background music. «I have never been a passive consumer of music, nor a passive author», he explains while presenting «The Age Of Everything». From the first solo album he gave himself only one rule: each album must be bigger and braver than the previous one. It is the most severe yardstick one can choose, and it is best to use it, because it is his.
The subject is that of the title, the chaos of an era in which everything happens at the same time. Marr crosses it without being overwhelmed by it and relies, as always, on a wall of reverbed guitars and choruses built to stay in your head.
The songs were born in London, Marr tested them during the American tour and recorded them in Manchester. The passage from the stage is felt: the songs have the pace of a concert and an almost physical safety.
The first half is the best music Marr has made on his own in recent years. The disco-pop additions and dream-pop openings broaden the sound without weighing it down, and the atmosphere avoids both frenzy and gloom.. It’s Time it’s the protest song on the album and shows that Marr still knows how to write a political piece that can be hummed, something that only a few people could do in Manchester forty years ago.
In the second half the record slips into the manner, and the manner often has the accent of the Smiths. The songs are similar, some flow without leaving a trace, and Marr’s sound, so recognizable as to become a signature, covers more tired writing. They are songs that on another album would pass for fillers and which hold up here only because he plays them.
«The Age Of Everything» is a solid album, bigger than those that preceded it. Half the courage is more courageous.
SCORE: 7.00
TO LISTEN NOW
It’s Time – Ophelia – In And Out Of Love
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Worth listening to. There’s no doubt about it!
TRACKLIST
Spin
Beyond The Rain
It’s Time
How Come
Ophelia
That Feeling
In And Out Of Love
Just Once More
Fire With Fire
All In A Life
