Johnny Marr's first album under his own solo name - The Messenger, released early last year - was big on indie-rock tunes but diminished by the guitar man's feeble turn at the microphone.

Singing still isn't his strong point, but it's a problem that's been partly addressed at the production desk and partly shrugged off as an irrelevance given the wall-to-wall exuberance of this follow-up.

Playland moves on from The Messenger, with several songs built over a more jagged, punk-styled rhythm section, the title track spinning around in a timeless whirlpool of rock'n'roll bluster, while lead single Easy Money slips in a disco-edged guitar and a ripper of a riff.

Marr sounds like a man half his age, putting pop songwriting rather than indie ego to the fore. So confident is he that he barely even hints at a Smiths-style riff (there might be the ghost of one in This Tension).

He has created himself anew several times since those glory days (Electronic, The Healers, Modest Mouse, The Cribs) but on solo duty refuses to play the retro card that would so easily guarantee packed houses on his upcoming tour.

Instead, this is modern guitar music for 2014, and his in-a-rut peers from the indie 1980s - even the Britpop 1990s - should take note.