Roger's Year in Music 2014, No. 7: Playland, by Johnny Marr.

It's an understatement of epic dimension for me to acknowledge that I'm an unapologetic Johnny Marr fan. From the Smiths through his many other projects and residencies (Electronica, Cribs, Modest Mouse), and now to a healthy and fulfilling solo career, I admire Marr's music, innate good taste and political proclivities ... in no particular order. He has featured here at the blog several times in the past.

Johnny Marr: "Propaganda, misinformation – everything is going to be about people who’ve got vast amounts of money."

Johnny Marr.

Thank you, Johnny Marr. That's electric guitar, right?

The Smiths on my birthday, and a Soviet recollection.

Back in 2003, we were fortunate to see Marr and his then-band, the Healers, at Headliners. Here's the recap, from Kathy's Zak Starkey fan site.

May 10, 2003 - Louisville, KY - Non-Comm Convention

This was a radio industry convention (for non-commercial stations), that ran from May 8-10th, and was held at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, KY. "Three days of meetings, music and networking for noncommercial Triple A radio." The many artists perform at various venues around the city, including WFPK's own state-of-the-art studios. The Healers played at the Headliners Music Hall Louisville, KY billed as Johnny Marr & the Healers with Daniel Lanois, John Hiatt & the Goners, John Eddy, and Digby. Johnny was scheduled to go onstage at 11:15pm, but did not actually hit the stage until almost 2am!!

Abbreviated set list: Long Gone, Caught Up, Down on the Corner, All Out Attack, You are the Magic, Don't Think Twice, Last Ride, Need It

Encore: In Betweens, Bangin On

Only 18 months passed between solos albums in 2013 and 2014. The Messenger was in my top five last year.

Johnny Marr … The Messenger
The songs are muscular and vibe-laden; much stylistic ground is covered, and the mastermind’s guitar goes everywhere and does everything. Ye Gods, a living, breathing rock and roll record. I’m glad it’s still possible.

The British music magazine NME picks up on this year's model, Playland.

It reads from the same classic British indie, new wave and post-punk hymn sheets as its predecessor, but coming from the guy who helped author significant swathes of those hymn sheets in the first place, it’s difficult to take umbrage. It’s a continuation in other ways, too: just as Marr’s singing voice is better than you’d suppose a lead guitarist’s to be, his lyrics are more nuanced than you’d necessarily expect from a guy who made his name writing music for others. Where most in Marr’s situation might write songs of drinking, touring, domestication and thinly veiled attacks on former bandmates, ‘The Messenger’ offered a series of wry observations on the surreal side of modern life: men falling in love with machines, the increasing mechanisation of human interaction, even the growth of European federalism. The words weren’t simply there to fill the spaces between licks.

‘Playland’, then, takes its title from Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s 1938 book ‘Homo Ludens’ - also known as ‘Man The Player’ and 'Man Player' - which imagines the concept of play as an organising principle of society, while lead single ‘Easy Money’ is a twitchy, maddeningly catchy ode to the root of all evil (and some pretty great rock’n’roll songs).