Nobody can deny that the Smiths were one of the most highly influential bands of the '80s. Led by Morrissey on vocals and Johnny Marr on guitar, the band kept on churning out track after track of new-wave goodness until their breakup in 1987. Their biggest hit "How Soon is Now?" has seen covers in nu-metal from Snake River Conspiracy, post-dated new wave from Love Spit Love and even Russian pseudo-lesbian pop from t.A.T.u.
After dabbling in lesser-known new-wave acts Electronic and The The, Johnny Marr now steps up to front his very own band, the Healers. But one could argue it misleading to call the band Marr's, because even though he takes on the roles of singer, guitarist and songwriter, equally noteworthy is drummer Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr's son and former member of the Who. Also in the band is Welsh bassist Alonza Bevan.
Johnny Marr isn't trying to re-create the Smiths " a wise move on his part, because after 15 years away from one of the greatest bands of the new-wave era, re-creation almost always translates into inferior rehash. But although it's been well over a decade since he left the Smiths (and a few years after his departure from Electronic and The The), you can't shed the guitar licks that made you famous that easily. And he doesn't.
Marr's guitar is still there. But he keeps the distortion effects that defined the Smiths to a minimum and instead lays on the steady strumming; he keeps some songs in these bare, stripped-down versions and scatters various new-wave effects throughout other entire songs. The result is that each song on "Boomslang" is either a satisfying indie rock piece (think "Bigmouth Strikes Again," but slower and more acoustic) or a trying-to-be-new-wave mix of classic and modern rock.
Take the first single, "Down on the Corner." The instrumentals on this piece are simple but likeable, with a guitar that's constant enough to keep your attention but disposable enough to be considered harmless by many Adult Album Alternative radio stations. If you guessed that this song is of the indie-sounding variety, then you'd be correct.
On the other side, you have songs like "Long Gone," with drums and guitar that dampen the vocals enough so that you have to make an effort to understand the lyrics, but not enough that they drown out Marr speaking. This song would be, of course, of the "non-indie" variety.
As a lyricist, Marr takes a different approach with the Healers than Morrissey did with the Smiths. While a typical Smiths album ("Meat is Murder," anyone?) could fuel a pessimist for a 500-mile road trip, "Boomslang" won't. This is not to say that Marr does not have his darker moments, but on the whole, the lyrics are upbeat. Only the obscurity of "You Are the Magic" prevents it from becoming a happiness cliche, while Marr admits in "Something to Shout About" that "some things you've got to smile about" in a way that only a former member of a glass-half-empty type of band could. But please, Johnny, don't rhyme "know it" with "show it" like you do on "Another Day."
Of the three roles that Johnny Marr takes on in his band's debut album, his least impressive role is the singer. That isn't unexpected, since this is the first album he's fronted. Too much processing and directionless droning leave something to be desired on "Caught Up" and "Another Day."
But he isn't all bad. "Something to Shout About" is his solo effort, featuring vocals, guitars, melodica and synths all by Marr and no one else. He does 'em well, displaying the voice of a new wave graduate.
Missing from Marr's solo piece but banging away on drums in all other tracks is Zak Starkey. He is as talented on drums as Johnny Marr is on guitar, and most of the time you can tell -- "Down on the Corner" and the quick-paced, quick-titled "InBetweens" show how good the Marr-plus-Starkey formula can be -- but there are the songs where one performance is overshadowed by another. In "Need It," Starkey's superior percussion puts Marr and the others to shame.
Synths were commonplace in the '80s, and anyone left over from the new-wave era would probably be tempted to use them. Marr and the Healers do, and unfortunately it's not always to their benefit. The upbeat "You Are the Magic" goes a tad overboard on the electronic bleeps until the last minute, at which point it goes nuts. The catchy, funk-influenced pop tune "Another Day" puts a misplaced atmospheric synthesizer near the end; however, the same synth that was incongruous in that song is the focus of the dazzling minute-and-a-half instrumental "Headland."
If you want an hour of the dark, ominous guitar that made Marr famous, then find an instrumental version of a Smiths album. You won't find the same music on "Boomslang" as you did on "The Queen is Dead" or "Strangeways, Here We Come," but you will find a lighter, more upbeat guitar with an equally talented player. Even the name of the band is more optimistic than what you'd expect from the band that made Johnny Marr famous.
