Hear Johnny Marr’s Jagged New Song ‘Jeopardy’

What is Johnny Marr’s new song, Alex? The former Smiths guitarist has decided to give “Jeopardy,” a tune that was previously available only as a vinyl B side to “Hi Hello,” a wide release ahead of his upcoming North American tour in support of this year’s Call the Comet. With a jagged, herky-jerky guitar riff and heaps of echoey atmosphere, Marr sings, “We know how to make a memory.”

Marr told Rolling Stone this year that Trumpism and Brexit both inspired the themes of Call the Comet. “I wouldn’t call it a concept record,” he said. “But it’s got a unifying theme going through it about the earth welcoming a different intelligence from the cosmos to save us from our own plight. The title Call the Comet is sort of a conscious plea for a new way.”

The record ends, however, on an upbeat note on the song “A Different Gun.” “It was important to me that I end with a sense of idealism,” he said, “though it’s interesting to me that I put it in a song that was inspired by terrorist activity.”

He’s kicking off his North American tour tonight in Seattle and will make his way across the upper half of the continent before ending on October 22nd in Philadelphia.