(Johnny Marr, circa 2007)Firstly, I’m not ashamed to admit I love The Smiths. I love Johnny Marr. (I even love Morrissey, but that’s a separate issue for a different blog on a future date). So it was with interest that I charted the reawakening of Johnny Marr’s career, and it was with due surprise that I read the following in an interview with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock:
"He made a cautious commitment to write and record with us, and then the tighter we got, he was like, ‘okay, let's tour too.' Then he was pretty much a member of the band - not pretty much. He's a full blown member of the band. It's really fuckin' nice."
Nice? It is indeed. Marr wasn’t the only new string to the collective Modest Mouse bow as they wrote and recorded their fifth studio album - James Mercer (indie wet dream frontman of The Shins, and reason number 36 why Garden State is such a good movie) adds backing vocals, and previously departed drummer Jeremiah Green returns on the sticks.
(Modest Mouse promo shot, 2006 line up) Such change could be considered a shock, following the success of Modest Mouse’s last album - Good News For People Who Love Bad News - which had an American Modern Rock #1 with their first cut off it, ‘Float On’ - a summery breeze of a tune, included for your listening pleasure below…
Modest Mouse - Float On (Good News For People Who Love Bad News, 2004)
However, change was deemed appropriate, and the fifth Modest Mouse album - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank - is a 14 track, 62 minute long, recorded testament to the tweaks in lineup. Everything just sounds fuller. Bigger. Better. Bang! It hits you. Hook! It snares you. Track after track after track.
This isn’t a review, this is an appraisal. A damn positive one at that.
(Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, 2007)The best track to demonstrate the blend of a fuller Modest Mouse sound, Brock’s glorious fluctuating vocals, and the battle of his guitar and Marr’s, is the lead single from the album - 'Dashboard'. If you don’t love it by the breakdown at 2:15, then you’ll be hooked thereafter. If you’re not hooked by the guitar at 2:44, then you’re a fool. And you’re reading the wrong blog. Actually, you’re inhabiting the wrong planet. Download via the following link… just a couple of clicks away is a song which is sure to feature in many “Best Of 2007” lists - certainly mine, hopefully yours…
Modest Mouse - Dashboard (We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, 2007)
Before I digress too much, this blog is about Johnny Marr, not just Modest Mouse (although I cant stress enough just how good their new album is, and that’s coming from somebody who wasn’t a massive fan in the past). Johnny Marr was, as you no doubt already know, one of the two true genii behind The Smiths. Together with a certain Steven Patrick Morrissey he created some of the 1980’s greatest and most enduring songs, and in the album The Queen Is Dead, he helped to create arguably the decades best mainstream album. As the 80’s progressed the relationship between Morrissey and Marr became strained, and eventually broke down, leading to the demise of The Smiths. Slander followed. Court cases followed. Huge fame for Morrissey as a solo artist followed (although most fans insist that Morrissey without Marr was never the same again). The theories for the true reason that The Smiths split persist to this day - did Morrissey have an unreciprocated love for Marr? Was Morrissey jealous of the praise afforded to Marr, when he wasn’t the frontman of the band?
(Morrissey on the left, Marr on the right, circa 1985)Regardless, Morrissey carried on to achieve huge levels of success - still selling out arenas worldwide to this day and releasing decent albums which, while not original or groundbreaking, sate his fanbase and provided the odd killer radio track every now and then (see: ‘The First Of The Gang To Die’ and ‘You Have Killed Me’).
Johnny Marr however only achieved mixed success post-Smiths. Albums with The The, Electronic, and his own band, Johnny Marr And The Healers, never even came close to his achievements with The Smiths. Joining Modest Mouse to many seemed a strange move, but the fruits of their collective labour speak for themselves. The paring of Brock and Marr could, perhaps, in time be afforded the same praise as Morrissey and Marr before then. The signs are promising.
By way of tribute to Marr’s work in the 1980’s I’ve linked below three quintessential Smiths tracks below. Two cuts from The Queen Is Dead, and one from compilation album Louder Than Bombs.
(Louder Than Bombs, 1987, and The Queen Is Dead, 1986)Essential listening for any self respecting music fan.
The Smiths - Panic (Louder Than Bombs, 1987)
The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again (The Queen Is Dead, 1986)
The Smiths - Vicar In A Tutu (The Queen Is Dead, 1986)
You can check out more of the mentioned artists, or buy some of their works, via the following links:
Modest Mouse
The Smiths
Johnny Marr
‘We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank’ on Amazon
‘Good News For People Who Love Bad News’ on Amazon
‘Louder Than Bombs’ on Amazon
‘The Queen Is Dead’ on Amazon
Enjoy! x
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