“It’s very depressing to me that we are still dealing with the same issues we were dealing with 40 years ago,” says singer Matt Johnson says, noting that many of the themes on classic THE THE songs – alienation, feeling powerless in the face of corporate greed & governments who don’t have the good of the people in mind, the search for connection in an increasingly distanced world – are as relevant today as they were in the 1980s. With the turmoil of the last decade, it’s good to have Matt & The The back.
‘Ensoulment’ is the first The The album in a quarter century & comes 8 years after Johnson reactivated the band following 17 years of hibernation. Those recent years have been both tumultuous & prolific…
Matt’s brother, Andrew (Andy Dog), whose artwork has graced many The The albums, died in 2016 and inspired 2017 single “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming.” More activity followed: “The Inertia Variations” documentary, Radio Cineola broadcasts, and then the 2018 The Comeback Special world tour. With a stable line-up of The The, including long time collaborators James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums), and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar),
Johnson began work on the new album only to be sidelined by 2020, which, in addition to the COVID pandemic, found him in the hospital with an acute throat infection that gave him a “close shave with the grim reaper” that could’ve also taken his voice.
All this, plus Brexit and many UK and US elections, added to the flavor of “Ensoulment.” Working again with producer Warne Livesay, with whom he made “Infected” and “Mind Bomb”, it has all the hope, humour, and paranoia, the scope and intimacy, and the way with melody you expect from a The The album. “Left is right / black is white / inside out / hope is doubt,” he sings on the album’s opening song “Cognitive Dissident,” and it’s like nothing has changed.
Matt Johnson said via Zoom this summer about about “Ensoulment”, The The’s upcoming tour, his relationship with New York, climbing out onto one of The Chrysler Building’s iconic eagles for the “I Saw the Light” video in 1995, and how the more things change the more they stay the same. It should also be noted that, while specifics of the upcoming US election were not mentioned,
The lyrics for this song were written from Matt Johnson’s hospital bed under the influence of morphine, whilst recovering from a life-saving operation. As fate would have it, Johnson’s weeks in hospital had nothing to do with Covid, but occurred at precisely the time Covid reached crisis proportions, making for an even more surreal ordeal. The discordant interplay between horns and fiddle is redolent of Johnson’s hallucinogenic, surreal experience, which he tried to emulate by asking the musicians to improvise over the track, without hearing the other’s contribution, as he manipulated the sounds in real time. ‘Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot’ is unique in that it does not feature any of the core band members apart from Johnson on vocals, guitar and bass, plus guest musicians Sonya Cullingford on fiddle, Terry Edwards on horns, Gillian Glover providing backing vocals, and hand claps from percussionist Danny Cummings. Co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey.
‘Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake’ is the 3rd single from “Ensoulment”, The The’s first studio album in a quarter century. It is a song Matt Johnson had been trying to write for many years but never managed to finish – until last year. It belongs to the family of songs he has written about London, including ‘Perfect’, ‘Flesh & Bones’, ‘Heartland’, ‘The Beat(en) Generation’, ‘Helpline Operator’, ‘Pillar Box Red’ and others. The song is co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey and features Matt Johnson on vocals and acoustic guitar; Barrie Cadogan on electric guitar and backing vocals; DC Collard on keyboards; James Eller on bass; Earl Harvin on drums; Sonya Cullingford on fiddle; Gillian Glover on backing vocals. “I have often drunk my coffee by the grave of William Blake “– though these days there are actually two gravestones dedicated to him in the small dissenters’ cemetery that he was thrown into when he died. On and off over the last 40 years I have lived close by and have always found it an inspiring place to sit and meditate upon life. Nostalgia is part of the human condition and change is inevitable in our lives and in the world around us. Large capital cities such as London often amplify the sense of change, although one thing that never seems to change is the cynicism of those in power”– Matt Johnson
“Ensoulment” will be released on 6th September (Cinéola / earMUSIC)
The Fat Angel Sings 