The The - DVDfever.co.uk

The The
45RPM: The Singles Distributed by
Epic/Sony

Year: 2002
Rating: 9/10
Cat. No: 504469-9

Track listing:

1981 saw a deeply introspective singer-songwriter by the name of Matt Johnson arrive on the scene, with his debut album Burning Blue Soul. Two years later, as The The – an anti-name to trounce all anti-names – he was one of the era’s most intruiging one-man bands, at a time when peers such as Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) and Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) were also embarking on a collision course with the mainstream.

Mavericks are few and far between these days, unfortunately. The rising commercialisation of pop music, and its immersion into the bosom of corporate-owned media and electronic giants has seen to that. But 20 years ago, there was room in the charts for intelligent, inventive and original talents such as Johnson, Frame and Gartside. The The’s popularity rose with each release from 1983’s Soul Mining to 1993’s Dusk, a steady progression chartwise that mirrored Johnson’s growing maturity and sharpening focus as a writer.

Although singles success was limited to the occasional brush with the lower half of the UK Top 30 (The Beat(en) Generation‘s #18 peak in 1989 proving a career best), 45RPM is a concise encapsulation of the qualities which made The The so consistently diverting and provocative.

Early gems Uncertain Smile and This Is The Day – the former in its original version, the latter a reworking from the 1994 Dis-Infected EP – were vignettes of ordinary life, shot through with an individual vision, always hinting at the darker underbelly of human emotions and of life itself.

Johnson expanded his horizons on 1986’s defining Infected album, his neuroses and sharp intellect consumed by the decline of morality in the Western world and the unnerving ascendency of potentially catastrophic conflict in the Middle East. With almost prophetic precision, Sweet Bird Of Truth predated the Gulf War by five years, with its first-person relaying the last thoughts of a US airforce pilot as his plane is shot down over Saudi Arabia.

Infected was a dark, brooding and cautionary record, also casting its gaze over the delapidated state of 80s Britian on Heartland, while the title track drew upon the fear of an AIDS epidemic. Around this time, Johnson must have been the scourge of media censors; Sweet Bird Of Truth, even in 1986, was denied much airplay due to its controversial subject matter, the Infected single’s sleeve (a painting of the devil masturbating) caused outrage, and the longform video which accompanied the album was given an 18 certificate. Compared to today’s climate of endless explicit titillation and soft-porn that masquerades as pop culture, such fuss seems all the more ironic, and almost Victorian in nature.

Undaunted, Johnson repeated the trick with Mind Bomb three years on, with slightly less explosive results. The The officially became a band at this point, augmented by a small group of musicians including former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. The latter’s influence was certainly evident on The Beat(en) Generation, a deceptively breezy critique – “reared on a diet of prejudice and misinformation, open your eyes…. open your imagination!”. The remainder of Mind Bomb was heavy-going, though, as heavily multi-tracked and distorted vocals took on a near demonic tone and the spectre of the Middle East unrest continued to dominate. Armageddon Days summed up the album’s modus operandi in 4 minutes.

Next came Dusk, another collection of intense musings, but Johnson’s outlook had reverted to the personal. A decade on from Soul Mining, a degree of intimacy and subtlety returned to The The’s music, aside from Dogs Of Lust‘s impressive raw power that is. Since then, Johnson’s profile has faltered after a couple of holding operations – the Dis-infected EP revisiting old material, followed by Hanky Panky, an album of Hank Williams cover versions – and then The The’s label Epic passed on a late 90s album of new material. A parting of the ways ensued, although 45RPM contains a trio of brand new tracks that show Johnson is still a creative force.

Pillarbox Red, scheduled as a single to promote this compilation but withdrawn prior to release, is a gorgeous slice of retro pop, awash with chiming guitars and swooping strings redolent of the soundtrack of numerous espionage films from the mid-1960s. Deep Down Truth threatens to turn into The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary, but again it’s fresh ground for Johnson and all the better for it.

For a singles collection, 45RPM is brief by current standards with a running time of barely 60 minutes and technically just a dozen actual singles; the omission of Slow Train To Dawn, the 4th release from Infected, is therefore all the more perplexing. Nevertheless, Johnson and The The have long deserved the retrospective treatment, and this is a fine option for those who might be daunted by the 4CD London Town boxset also released this year.

(DVDfever Ed: At the time of placing this review online, this CD appears to be unavailable, but the above Amazon link is for the Limited Edition which includes a bonus CD of remixes.)

[Up to the top of this page]

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

DVDfever.co.uk

Follow DVDfever.co.uk