Johnny Marr has released new single ‘It’s Time’, taken from his forthcoming studio album, The Age of Everything, due October 2nd via BMG.
The song premiered live on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show, and has already been picked out by MOJO as “a triple threat protest song that hits the sweet spot.” Marr has described the track as a way of engaging with wider social issues while pushing back against cynicism, framing it around finding “defiance, in idealism.”
‘It’s Time’ follows two earlier singles from the album, ‘Spin’, a mainstay across 6 Music, Radio 2, Virgin, Absolute and Radio X, praised by NME as “soaring and urgent,” and ‘Ophelia’, described by Clash as evidence of the creative confidence currently running through Marr’s work.
The video for ‘It’s Time’ was filmed at Marr’s sold-out homecoming show at Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl earlier this year, the biggest headline performance of his solo career, and drew praise from the i Paper, the Telegraph and the Manchester Evening News alike.
The Age of Everything is Marr’s fifth full-length studio album, ten songs he has called the most cathartic songwriting of his career. It was written in London, developed live on the road across the East Coast of North America, and recorded in Manchester.
The release lands during a packed year for Marr. Ahead of the album, Christie’s will auction around 80 guitars from his collection as part of Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection. On October 22nd, Thames & Hudson will publish a 10th-anniversary illustrated edition of his autobiography, Set the Boy Free, featuring previously unseen photography, a new introduction, a tribute to former Smiths bassist Andy Rourke, and a foreword by Noel Gallagher.
Since going solo, Marr has scored five UK Top 10 albums, recorded the James Bond theme for No Time to Die with Billie Eilish, received the Ivor Novello Inspiration Award, and picked up an Academy Award nomination for his work with Hans Zimmer on Inception. Since 2022’s Fever Dreams Pts 1-4, he has released the Spirit Power: The Best of Johnny Marr collection, the Marr’s Guitars photobook, staged A Night with the Johnny Marr Orchestra, released the Look Out Live! album, and collaborated with Gorillaz, Franz Ferdinand, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, and Grian Chatten and Kae Tempest on the HELP(2) album.
The Age of Everything tracklist:
- Spin
- Beyond the Rain
- It’s Time
- How Come
- Ophelia
- That Feeling
- In and Out of Love
- Just Once More
- Fire with Fire
- All in a Life
The Age of Everything is out October 2nd via BMG.
