Secret Meeting score: 73
by Phil Scarisbrick
When you find success as part of a group, the pressure on your solo releases tends to be unduly large. Rather than being judged as a new or different act, you will always have to live up to your previous accomplishments. This task is almost impossible when your success was achieved as a key member of an act as sublime and influential as The Smiths.
How can somebody in their fifties match the excitement and fervour of the music they stopped making by the age of 23? This is the challenge that has faced Johnny Marr over the last 31 years. Of course, it can be a nice problem to have. Most guitarists would cut their right arm off to have written just one of the era-defining riffs he seemed to find so easy. Since the demise of The Smiths, he has worked with an eclectic range of artists including Bernard Sumner (as the often underrated Electronic), The The, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, Talking Heads, The Pretenders and Hans Zimmer. He has also been releasing music as a solo artist, with 2013’s The Messenger, the following year’s Playland and this week’s release, Call The Comet.
Describing the record Marr said, “Call The Comet is my own magic realism. It’s set in the not-too-distant future and is mostly concerned with the idea of an alternative society. The characters in the songs are searching for a new idealism, although there are some personal songs in there too. It’s something that people like me can relate to.”
Rise kicks things off with shimmering guitars and distorted bass, offering us our first glimpse of the dystopian world Marr imagined. The Tracers is backed by The Queen Is Dead evoking drums as he describes his new world in a more utopian manner, singing – ‘Someone guide me above/Streams of silver and gold/Ride the comet, ride it so far/Come with me, evaporate’. Bug is another Smiths call back musically with its opening funk-draped section feeling like an updated Barbarism Begins At Home.
Despite being the lead single, Hi Hello might be the weakest song on the first side. The familiar sounding guitar is beautiful, but the vocal melody seems to plod along slightly. Combined with some very lightweight lyrics, it really minimises the song’s impact. Draped in synths and frenetically climbing guitars, there is a euphoria to My Eternal as Marr sings ‘All the saints are underground’. The music is the real star though, painting visceral visions of a colourful and vibrant future.
Closing track, A Different Gun, was written as a reaction to the Nice terror attack and ultimately recorded the same night as the Manchester Arena attack. This pained reflection of the splintered world in which we inhabit is a fitting close to an album which is constantly looking forward. This song explains exactly WHY we need to move forward, because the status quo is completely terrifying.
There is an old and tired question that journalists seem legally bound to ask any former member of The Smiths- ‘Will you ever reform?’ The problem with this question is that such a reunion would be pointless. The Yin and Yang that made the band tick are worlds apart. While Morrissey has become the archetypal ‘angry old little Englander’, Marr doesn’t seem to have aged at all. He doesn’t have the lyrical clout or vocal quality of his former band mate, but there is still something utterly joyous about hearing him playing guitar. The subject matters within his songs are filled with empathy and optimism. His work with Hans Zimmer has rubbed off here, with an atmospheric, widescreen sound that is at times totally captivating. Call The Comet may not hit the heights of his Eighties’ work, but it doesn’t strive to. What it is though is Marr’s best solo album to date.
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