Ensoulment, THE THE’s first studio album in a quarter century. Co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey, the album encompasses characteristic topics ranging from love & sex, war & politics, life & death – to the meaning of what it is to be human in the 21st century. It contains echoes of THE THE’s multifaceted musical past, however it is richly representative of the mercurial band’s here and now. Johnson is characteristically unafraid to tackle the emotional complexity inherent in the human condition – intimacy in an age of alienation; democracy in a post-truth age; empire and vassalage; and the inexorable rise of AI – yet the album is equally shot through with hope.
About THE THE
THE THE was formed by Matt Johnson in 1979 and the music inhabits a genre of its own: music of long shadows, high hopes, channelled anger, feverish passions and sweetly disturbing poignancy. It is pop and rock, blues and folk, soul and polemic. It spans alienated electronics to twisted cinematic soundtracks, guitar tumbling swing to crimson ballads, rants and prayers to diaries and hymns. In over four decades, THE THE have released just five studio albums of original songs – Soul Mining (1983), Infected (1986), Mind Bomb (1989), Dusk (1993) and NakedSelf (2000). But always unpredictable, during this time THE THE have also made diversions into cover albums, such as Hanky Panky; film soundtracks including Hyena, Tony, Muscle and Moonbug; art installations; a podcast series, Radio Cinéola; a beautiful and moving 84-minute documentary, The Inertia Variations; and various book publications, including biography Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & THE THE.
Tracklist
01 Cognitive Dissident
02 Some Day I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake
03 Zen & The Art Of Dating
04 Kissing The Ring Of Potus
05 Life After Life
06 I Want To Wake Up With You
07 Down By The Frozen River
08 Risin’ Above The Need
09 Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot
10 Where Do We Go When We Die?
11 I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)
12 A Rainy Day In May
Studio Master Product Configuration:
1/4” - 2 Track RTM SM900 - 15IPS - 38cm/sec - CCIR - 510 nWb/m - 2 Precision Metal Reels - Special Archive Boxes - Horch House Deluxe Packaging
