The smithsを感じられるのは6."The Messenger"、11."New Town Velocity"くらいでしょうか。 7."Generate! Generate!" 、3."European Me"、5."Lockdown"はTHE UKギターロックと言った具合でギターが歌ってくれてます。 他にも過去に在籍していたMODEST MOUSEやThe Cribsのニュアンスも多く香ります。 Johnny Marr and the Healersの面影は全くなく全体的にイキイキしてます
First album to give me goosebumps in a long time. I think Johnny Marr has saved all his best stuff since The Smiths for this brilliant album. I could trash my whole CD collection and start fresh with The Messenger if I chose to, it's just that great and encompasses so much of what I love about music all from a fellow teetotaler (so rare to come by in music like this) and Aldous Huxley fan. For someone who spent his formative teen years listening to Strangeways, Here We Come as The Smiths were disbanding straight into Morrissey's epic Viva Hate and all that other great stuff in the late '80s (The Cure, Love and Rockets, The Church, Echo & The Bunnymen to name a few), it doesn't get a whole lot better than this. I sampled close to half of this before it arrived and am happy to say even the stuff I avoided spoiling until I got the CD in my hands all holds up to and in some cases surpasses the first few tracks I'd heard. "The Right Thing Right", "European Me", "Upstarts", "The Messenger", "New Town Velocity", and "Word Starts Attack" were all awesome when I previewed them, so I was really pleased that the rest like the spectacular "Lockdown" along with "Generate ! Generate !", "Say Demesne" (a touch of Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" and an epic Cure song), and "The Crack Up" (could have easily fit in on Strangeways) all held their own and then some. Really can't imagine any other lead guitarists from other bands being able to do what Johnny Marr has done here. Heck, didn't know he could do it either, but here it is!
From seeing him perform with The Cribs on Letterman (that's a good band even without him still in it) to seeing him on Portlandia in the bit with the bicycle parking it's been a cool lead-up to this masterpiece. I'd love to see this set live, so please come to San Diego!