Johnny Marr
Playland
NEW VOODOO
6/10
For those tragically pining for the mythical Smiths reunion, 2014 has seen two more nails hammered into that already tightly sealed coffin. Morrissey, after a lengthy creative stagnation, released one of his most gloriously lacerating albums ever in World Peace Is None of Your Business. And with Playland, long-estranged partner Johnny Marr has now definitively proven that his musical life force will have to be buried with him. Curiously, as one of the most radical sonic revolutionaries of his generation, Marr seems happy just frolicking through the basic landscape of rock and roll, rather more Keith Richards than Jimmy Page. But then, who has the energy to keep storming the barricades of the established cultural order? And though it seems a bit cheeky that “Dynamo” and “The Trap” could have flowed straight from Morrissey’s pen, let’s be honest: even if they no longer exchange Christmas cards, their musical DNA is inextricably intertwined. Indeed, it’s hard not to be reminded of some of The Smiths’ more fiendish moments (“London” comes immediately to mind) as Marr rips through the raucous title track. On “This Tension” he even takes a stab at a manifesto as he boasts, “I’m a conceptual son… / The pure obsessional one.” But far from obsessing or conceptualizing, Marr seems to be having a bloody riot tearing it up better than most of those half his age. Unruly boys will not settle down…
