Johnny Marr released his fifth solo studio album, "The Age of Everything," on Friday through BMG — his first new solo record in four years and, by his own account, the most personal he has made since The Smiths disbanded nearly four decades ago. The ten-track set was written in London, shaped further on the road during a tour of North America's East Coast, and recorded back home in Manchester.
The album arrives in CD, black vinyl, a limited red vinyl pressing and an exclusive three-color splatter edition, with the track list running from opener "Spin" — whose video was shot in Manchester — through "Beyond the Rain," "It's Time," "How Come," "Ophelia," "That Feeling," "In and Out of Love," "Just Once More," "Fire With Fire" and closer "All in a Life."
Marr has described the record as the product of an unusually direct writing process, one that produced its title before it produced much else.
This is the record that's been the most cathartic. The title came to me early in the process and became an inescapable idea. It seemed to sum up the way I think a lot of people are feeling. There's a sense of overwhelm in the culture brought about by technology, but looking at it with a different light, there could also be a sense of possibility.
Johnny Marr, in a statement accompanying the album
A Guitarist Still Restless at 62
The record is Marr's fifth solo studio album, following 2018's "Call the Comet" and 2022's sprawling double set "Fever Dreams Pts 1-4." Early notices have focused on the same restlessness that has defined his catalog since: Clash flagged "Ophelia" as evidence of the creative confidence running through his current work, while advance press around the album's announcement emphasized its sharp, fast arrangements over the more atmospheric textures of "Fever Dreams."
Marr is backing the release with a run of large shows rather than a club tour: a sold-out homecoming at Manchester's Castlefield Bowl in July preceded a string of European festival dates, and he plays London's Wembley Arena on October 24 — by some distance the biggest headline date of his solo career.
With the album now in shops and the Wembley date three weeks out, the test for "The Age of Everything" will be whether songs built for a tour bus and a hometown studio translate to an arena built for 12,000 people. Marr has generally bet that they will; the record's title track argument — that overwhelm and possibility can coexist — is, in effect, the same bet he is making with the room he has booked.
