Description
Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 is some great reward for the Marr faithful, it’s the legendary Smiths guitarist’s first full length LP of new music since 2018 & his fourth solo full-length….a hope-fuelled 16-song new double album, mounted on a generous, expansive balance of scope and detail. With invigorating riffs and beefy electronics emphasising Marr’s rock, post-punk and, indeed, Electronic previous, the results provide urgent, galvanised and layered backing for Marr’s often broad, forthright lyrics, which aim for the kind of “there is a light” thinking that these murky times perhaps call for.
Recorded in Marr’s favoured Manchester studio over lockdown, the album is a lockdown album to a degree, albeit with the focus placed on themes of mutable time and large-scale outreach over the micro-details of pandemic living. That subtle handling of choppy times receives elegant treatment in closer Human, proof that Marr can still write the kinds of songs you feel you’ve always known when needed. “Better’s gonna come,” he sings. Brimming with melody and momentum, Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 makes you believe such sentiments.
Johnny Marr started his career with The Smiths, beginning an amazing personal music history. His subsequent creative journey has seen him at the heart of The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse and The Cribs, as well as working with such names as The Pretenders, Talking Heads, & The Avalanches.
