New album coming soon for The The. It is the first studio album of new songs in a quarter of a century for the historic band led by Matt Johnson. It will be called “Ensoulment” and will be released on September 6th on the Cineola / earMUSIC label. The themes of the album – a note informs – will range from love to sex, from war to politics, from life to death, trying to explain what it means to be human in the 21st century. A record that contains the band's musical past but is also fully representative of the changing “here and now” of Johnson's project, which is not afraid to face the emotional complexity of the human condition: intimacy in an era of alienation, democracy in the era of post-truth and the inexorable rise of artificial intelligence. Yet the album is imbued with hope: “It's essential to have hope – says Johnson – And I hope that people perceive in the album what we put into it. It was created in happy circumstances, there was a lot of thought, a lot of work, a lot of love, a lot of laughter!”. The The also recently announced a new world tour, starting in September 2024, the band's first since the huge success of 2018's The Comeback Special.
“Cognitive Dissident” is the first single from “Ensoulment”. Written by Matt Johnson and Barrie Cadogan, it will also be available in a limited edition 7” with an unreleased B-side on June 7th. Stream it below.
After his last studio album in 2000 (“NakedSelf”), Johnson's long absence was partly due to his 2017 multimedia project, “The Inertia Variations,” which took inspiration from the book of the same name by British poet John Tottenham in 2005, resulting in a feature-length documentary and the “Radio Cinéola Trilogy” triple album box set. At the end of the documentary “The Inertia Variations,” Johnson was filmed performing a new song live in his studio; “We Can't Stop What's Coming”, dedicated to his older brother Andrew (AKA the artist Andy Dog), who passed away in 2016. “It wasn't an easy song to write – he told Louder – It was the first time I sang after many years. I enjoyed it, it was very emotional.” The experience pushed Johnson to revive The The live too, with The Comeback Special world tour in 2018. Unfortunately, Covid delayed the film's release. and the accompanying album until 2021, as well as hindering the release of the new album. Meanwhile, The The released a series of 7-inch singles: “We Can't Stop What's Coming” was followed by “I”. WANT 2 BU” (2020) and “$1 ONE VOTE!” (2023).
Formed in 1979 on the initiative of leader Matt Johnson, one of the most important figures in the English post-punk scene, The The are one of the most interesting bands to emerge in that period. After a series of solo works, Johnson decides to attribute the bizarre theme song “The The” to his musical project and sets out on the bright paths of disco music, debuting with the single “Uncertain Smile”. Soul-jazz fusions characterize the song that launches the group into the vast English synth-pop panorama. In 1983, The The's first and fundamental album, “Soul Mining”, arrived. A crystalline collage of mischievous polyrhythmic melodies; the essence of the songs is entirely contained in Johnson's ease in reinventing the concept of “dance” pop music, giving it a taste that encompasses soul, jazz, funky, world-beat, techno-pop. The disguise adopted by Johnson to hide his precious inspirations is that of disco music, which abandons certain easy stereotypes to leap onto harmonic constructions with greater complexity.
In four decades, The The released only five studio albums of original songs: “Soul Mining” (1983), “Infected” (1986), “Mind Bomb” (1989), “Dusk” (1993) and “NakedSelf” ” (2000). They also made cover albums, such as “Hanky Panky”; film soundtracks, including “Hyena,” “Tony,” “Muscle” and “Moonbug”; art installations; a podcast series, “Radio Cinéola”; an acclaimed 84-minute documentary, “The Inertia Variations”; and various books, including the biography “Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & The The.”
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
