Former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has shared his new album, Playland, on Spotify a week in advance of its release, Consequence of Sound has reported.
Marr's previous album, 2013's The Messenger, was his first solo release, and the guitarist said he kept the creative juices flowing from those sessions to churn out Playland, out Oct. 7.
"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."
"I always liked bands' second albums," the guitarist told Rolling Stone last month. "I like the Talking Heads' second album a lot. I liked Wire's second album. And I liked Buzzcocks' second album. I couldn't wait to get the follow-up record from my favorite new band."
In the same interview, Marr, ranked 51 on the magazine's list of 100 greatest guitarists, spoke about the lead single "Easy Money."
"The riff was so catchy and infectious that I wanted it to be about something that appeared to be trite but was actually quite universal," he said about the song, which highlights the pitfalls of greed. "Money is a preoccupation of everybody, and it took me quite a long time to write something that appeared to be simple. If you were to ask anybody in the City [London's equivalent to Wall Street] what they're after, essentially the root of it is money. It's the age-old thing of people thinking that it will make us happy."
Listen to Marr's new album below and check out the tracklist:
Playland Tracklist:
1. Back in the Box
2. Easy Money
3. Dynamo
4. Candidate
5. 25 Hours
6. The Trap
7. Playland
8. Speak Out Reach Out
9. Boys Get Straight
10. This Tension
11. Little King
