Johnny Marr on Fontaines D.C. and fighting “dodgy views”: “The current young generation are really switched on”

Johnny Marr has spoken to NME about his new solo album ‘The Age Of Everything’, his love of Fontaines D.C. and The Cure, working with Damon Albarn and his hope for the future via the younger generations. The former Smiths guitarist turned solo star will share his fifth studio record this Friday (October 2) – a project he said was inspired by “the idea of perception, and how I perceive not just the world but my own feelings and those of the people around me, to spy on them and then write songs about it”. Written while people-watching in London before being recorded in Marr’s native Manchester, the LP comprises 10 bright and punchy pop-leaning tracks that look at the human side of societal issues in 2026, with the guitar icon leaning into his own idiosyncrasies more than ever before. “There was a sense of: ‘If you’ve got your own sound, do it and do it loud’,” he told NME. “There’s definitely a time for that. There are other considerations that come into play when you’re about to go into a new phase. There’s reinvention, doing something you’ve not done before, and I’ve done it several times throughout my career.” He continued: “I’m usually quite deliberate. I went into this record wi...