‘Adrenalin Baby’ is Johnny Marr's first live album recorded primarily at his Brixton Academy and Manchester Apollo gigs during Marr's ‘Playland’ tour in support of his Top 10 solo albums ‘The Messenger’ and ‘Playland’.
‘Adrenalin Baby’ features tracks from his debut album 'The Messenger' and follow-up 'Playland' as well as takes on The Smiths’ classics ‘The Headmaster Ritual’, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ and ‘How Soon Is Now?’.
The live album is completed by Electronic’s ‘Getting Away With It’ and Johnny’s interpretation of The Clash's classic ‘I Fought The Law’.
'Adrenalin Baby' kicks off with Marr's "Playland", his second record’s title track quickly followed by upbeat fist-pumper "The Right Thing Right" taken from his debut "The Messenger". You can feel the crowd going absolutely mental and by listening to the album - if you were not there that night - you can imagine people slamming into each other in the mosh pit singing along "On the right seem right, we gonna right it...". Thos etwo nights must have been pretty intense.
After that, it is time for dance rock feel tune "Easy Money" followed by '25 hours' another track off 'Playland' and 'New Town Velocity' taken from his debut 'The Messenger'. Song 6 is the first Smiths' classic to feature on the album "The Headmaster Ritual" followed by anthemic "Back in the Box" also taken from 'Playland'.
In spite of the strength and the brilliance of his solo material, inevitably The Smiths' tracks stand out. Classic anthemic tracks such as - Bigmouth Strikes Again, How Soon is Now and There is a Light that never Goes Out are clearly some of the best tunes off the album. Also the track 'Getting Away With It' from the so-called supergroup Electronic is huge without a shadow of a doubt.
The highlitghts of the live album are reserved for the last tracks where Marr sums up his incredible talent and all the passion of his guitar in four last songs "There is a Light that Never Goes Out", another album standout, the shimmering ‘Dynamo’ taken from 'Playland', The Clash's cover "I Fought the Law" to finally close the 17-track live record with hymn "How Soon is Now" .
Should you buy it? Most definitely! Johnny Marr laces all 17 tracks from his live album with attitude, adrenaline and volume. The live shows were loud and visceral and that similar atmosphere is translated to his new record 'Adrenalin Baby'.Johnny knows how to play to his strengths and the album shows what a great frontman and singer the amazing Johnny Marr has turned out to be.
PREORDER ADRENALIN BABY HERE
Released on digital, limited edition and numbered pink coloured double-vinyl (with a poster) and CD formats, the tracklisting for ‘Adrenalin Baby’ is:
Playland
The Right Thing Right
Easy Money
25 Hours
New Town Velocity
The Headmaster Ritual
The Messenger
Back In The Box
Generate! Generate!
Bigmouth Strikes Again
Boys Get Straight
Candidate
Getting Away With It
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Dynamo
I Fought The Law
How Soon Is Now?
Johnny Marr's Tour Dates
OCTOBER
4th – Oxford, O2 Academy
5th – Birmingham, Institute
7th – Manchester, Albert Hall (SOLD OUT)
8th – Manchester, Albert Hall
10th – Rockaway Beach Festival, Bognor Regis
11th – Newcastle, University
13th – Inverness, Ironworks
14th – Edinburgh, Liquid Rooms (SOLD OUT)
16th – Belfast, Limelight
18th – Dublin, Olympia Theatre
20th – London, Forum
22nd – Bristol, O2 Academy
txt: Dan Rodriguez
