Description
Johnny Marr – Call the Comet – Vinyl Record
The entrance to “Rise” is a good place to hear the difference between recognizing Johnny Marr’s guitar and knowing where he is going to take it. Parts come into focus in layers, with enough rhythmic space between them for the song to establish a world before the vocal steps out into it. That balance holds across much of Call the Comet.
Marr recorded the album in Manchester and released it in 2018, after two solo studio albums had given him a chance to define himself as a singer as well as a guitarist. “The Tracers” and “Hey Angel” show what he can get from an arrangement when those two roles have been worked out together from the start.
“Hi Hello” opens up a more tuneful space after those early songs. It has the clarity of one of Marr’s familiar guitar figures, but the other parts stay busy enough to keep the sound from turning into a period exercise. “New Dominions” follows with a harder outline and a very different sense of pace.
The second side starts with “Walk Into the Sea,” which gives the band room to build an arrangement over a longer stretch. “Spiral Cities” makes a more immediate point through movement. The difference between those tracks is part of the album’s shape, a willingness to let a guitar song develop at the pace its idea requires.
The gatefold NVLP004 LP contains twelve songs, ending with “A Different Gun.” Call the Comet is a good record to play through because of the care Marr takes with the transitions. The bright parts of his playing are here, but the darker sounds and the attention to rhythm have equal claims on the listener.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
- A1 — Rise
- A2 — The Tracers
- A3 — Hey Angel
- A4 — Hi Hello
- A5 — New Dominions
- A6 — Day In Day Out
- B1 — Walk Into the Sea
- B2 — Bug
- B3 — Actor Attractor
- B4 — Spiral Cities
- B5 — My Eternal
- B6 — A Different Gun
