2 keepers
keeper avg .166
It seems Johnny Marr's first solo album (or second if one counts "Boomslang" (2003) credited to Johnny Marr + the Healers) is an improvement over its predecessor, starting with the Stones-y "The Right Thing Right," whose four-on-the-floor rhythm gives the song a good drive if not much melodically. "Upstarts"**** has a cool late 70's power-pop sound like Shoes or Off Broadway, one of the assemblage of "early alternative" guitar-based pop influences on the album. Marr's melancholy pedal tone riff gives Lockdown"**** a David Bowie "Heroes" feeling (if covered by Oasis). The title song and "New Town Velocity" are on the mellower, atmospheric side informed by "new garage" bands like Interpol, while the brooding "Say Demesne" resembles The Cure. The only Smiths sound-alike here is "European Me" which sounds a lot like "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", though the aforementioned "New Town Velocity" also isn't too far off.
Unfortunately the 12 songs on the album vary widely in quality, I believe an issue of songwriting choices. Like "The Right Thing Right," assertive Keith Richards' riffing also informs "The Crack Up," though the monosyllabic "take off, tick tock, full stop" chorus gets annoying, and unfortunately the major hooks of "Generate! Generate!" and "Word Starts Attack" also quickly become grating; they're case studies showing that when a part of a song is especially simple or repetitive there can be fine line between catchy and monotonous. Finally, any song mentioning "heartbeat" I can think of is pretty lousy (this is in "rock," mind you) and "I Want the Heartbeat" is no exception. That's just too many crappy songs to not bring a whole album down at least a notch.
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