Johnny Marr Searches for Light Amid Chaos on “Spin”

Legendary guitarist Johnny Marr is returning with a brand new album called The Age Of Everything (out October 2). On the album’s first single, “Spin”, Marr articulates the dizzying feeling of the modern world’s “everything” vibe. But he isn’t despairing. Atop a jangly, post-punk riff, Marr takes on the Sisyphean task of searching for light amid the chaos.

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

Marr’s narrator begins with a pep talk: Look alive. Everything around you, all at once. It’s coming fast, and you better pay attention. There is light in all this darkness, but keeping your eyes wide open is the only way to finally see it.

Look alive now everything’s coming,
Come around now, anything goes.
Take a ride round the long way to myself,
I get lost down every road.

Humans seek patterns. Today, anxiety mounts over rapid change, like ubiquitous A.I. But nervousness about technology, governments, etc. is nothing new in rock and roll. It’s not like Thom Yorke didn’t warn us on OK Computer.

I spend all day looking for a sign,
I wait all week for something to find.
And it takes so long just to take my time,
There’s too much coming into my mind.

The narrator is spinning out of control, but the chorus offers a reprieve from disorder. You can’t control what you cannot control. “Oh, it’s the way it goes,” he sings. Oh well, whatever, never mind.

Days keep running through my head,
All the things we do when I lose, I spin.
Oh, it’s the way it goes.
There is nothing I can say,
About the things we do, and I use I spin.
Oh, it’s the way it goes.

See What’s Doing

The key to endurance is sticking around. Just keep going, and little by little, the successes accumulate. But Marr speaks to a feeling of always chasing life from behind. He says, “There’s too much coming and too much time,” but most anxiety happens when we feel we’re running out of time.

Come around now see what’s doing,
Stick around now see what we done.
Getting lost in the thoughts racing from behind,
There’s too much coming and too much time.

Meanwhile, the world moves on. And it’s not the end of the world until, well, the end of the world. So until then, there’s always a chance to change fortunes. And that glimmer of light is hope, which is the opposite of despair.

World turns, the days go by,
Comes round to make me try.
Gets too close,
The day too much on me, oh.

Photo by Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena Di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images