Johnny Marr Reveals Release Date For Second Solo Album

Legendary British musician Johnny Marr has revealed that his sophomore solo effort, Playland, is due to be released this October via Warner Music Group.

The former guitarist of The Smiths won copious amounts of acclaim for his debut solo effort, The Messenger, which he only released last year after three decades as a professional musician – and the praise is set to keep flowing freely with the release of Playland, on which Marr commenced work having barely paused for breath after completing his extensive tour in support of The Messenger.

"When The Messenger came out, I kept on writing,” Marr said in a statement. “I liked that the band had a momentum going on tour and a connection with the audience, and I thought that energy would be good to capture on the new record.”

To that end, Marr conscripted veteran collaborator and The Messenger co-producer Doviak to help realise his vision of a record of albums thematically linked in their being “songs that move at the speed of life”, a deeply philosophical concept that peeks through even in the album’s title influences such as Homo Ludens (1938) by influential cultural theorist Johan Huizinga, who pontificated on the importance of play as a precursor to and fundamental element of cultural development.

“It's important to sound like your environment and on this record that's London and Manchester,” Marr said. “The feeling of the cities and the people make it into the music.”

Marr will hit the road for an extensive tour of Britain on October 13; Playland is due to hit physical and digital stores internationally the week before that, on October 7 – the Australian release is likely to fall very near that date.