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.” Listen to the former 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 & Soul
05 Hi Hello
06 Somewhere
07 The Messenger
08 I Feel You
09 The Answer
10 Dynamo
11 Spiral Cities
12 Night and Day
13 Sensory Street
14 Walk Into The Sea
15 Candidate
16 Tenement Time
17 Hi Hello (Demo)
18 Somewhere (Demo)
19 The Answer (Crazy F Version)
20 The Messenger (Demo)
21 Speak out Reach Out (Crazy F Version)