Johnny Marr will release a compilation of solo songs, Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr, on November 3, via BMG. The former Smiths guitarist curated the collection from the last 10 years of his output and recorded a pair of new tracks, “Somewhere” and “The Answer.” Watch the video for the former song below.
Of “Somewhere,” Marr said in press materials, “I’ve played a lot of arenas over the years, and in terms of songwriting, there’s nowhere to hide. For a song to work, it has to be a banger. I know it’s almost uncool to think in those terms, but I grew up in a house where my parents listened to Motown, where you couldn’t get a song released if it wasn’t full of hooks.”
Marr produced the new tracks with Marr alongside James Doviak. The album is coming out as a 2xLP, CD, and 2xCD. His last album, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, came out in 2021. A photography book called Marr’s Guitars is out this fall, following his 2016 memoir Set the Boy Free.
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Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr:
01 Armatopia
02 New Town Velocity
03 Easy Money
04 Spirit Power and Soul
05 Hi Hello
06 Somewhere
07 The Messenger
08 European Me
09 I Feel You
10 The Answer
11 Dynamo
12 Spiral Cities
13 The Priest
01 Night and Day
02 Sensory Street
03 Walk Into the Sea
04 Upstarts
05 Candidate
06 Tenement Time
07 Hi Hello (Demo)
08 Somewhere (Demo)
09 The Answer (Crazy Face Version)
10 The Messenger (Demo)
11 Speak Out Reach Out (Crazy Face Version)
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