I don’t often listen to The The, but when I do, it’s because I
\nhave a strong urge to hear the work of Matt Johnson. While The The
\nhaven’t been heard from much since the 1995 release of
\nHanky Panky<\/i>, a quick trip into the Pierce Archives (under
\nthe “Ex-Girlfriend” section) helps me get my fix.<\/p>\n
Recently, I got the hunger again, and it just so happened the
\nfirst title I came across was their 1986 release
\nInfected<\/i>. On this release, The The move away from their
\nelectronic dance-sounding pop to a more intense form that Johnson
\nwould become well-known for. It’s not perfect, but it’s an
\nimprovement over their first effort.<\/p>\n
Remnants of the old days can still be found on
\nInfected<\/i>, particularly on the title track. Unfortunately, it
\nis tracks like this one that sound the least natural for Johnson
\nand crew. And even when The The gets a little darker and political,
\nsuch as on “Heartland,” they show that some work still needs to be
\ndone. (You can’t really fault Johnson terribly; the album does
\nrepresent a serious shift of focus, and it’s rare that these go
\nwithout any hitches.)<\/p>\n
However,
\nInfected<\/i> shows the improvements in the band more than the
\nflaws. No matter how many times I listen to this tape, I always get
\nchills when the chorus of “Sweet Bird Of Truth” kicks in, featuring
\nJohnson’s vocals (that sound like they’re being sung into a
\nmegaphone) and the backing vocals of Anna Domino, who is the only
\nvoice I know that could make a plane crash sound like an
\nannouncement for the snack cart. Likewise, “Out Of The Blue (Into
\nThe Fire)” shows the power of Johnson when he builds a song into
\nlayer after layer of sound.<\/p>\n
Not all of the songs are love at first hear, though. “Slow Train
\nTo Dawn” took some time to grow on me, as did “The Mercy Beat”. But
\nwhen they did, the songs continued to instill in me a healthy
\nrespect for The The. (The personnel for each track changes; if I
\nlisted all the band members, we’d be here until next week.)<\/p>\n
The only drawback I can think of to
\nInfected<\/i> is that you’re going to have to invest some time in
\nthis album. It’s not going to be a disc you get on the first
\nlisten, much less one you’ll get into. Give this one at the very
\nleast three listens; by that time, some of the richer
\ncharacteristics of the album will become clearer to you. A cursory
\nlisten will probably leave you feeling this is just an average
\nalbum; and while it’s no masterpiece, it’s better than average.<\/p>\n
\nInfected<\/i> requires you to think a bit, especially with some
\nof the double entendres (check out the one in “Out Of The Blue
\n(Into The Fire)”, but in the end, you’ll think the investment was
\nworth it. It’s still worth listening to, even if you’re only going
\nto listen to it once… and that is your loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5669],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39293","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-the","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39293"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39293"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}