In Praise of.....Mind Bomb by The The

but what a first track!

My elder brother had this on tape so I used to listen to it. I cant remeber if I ever really liked it or not (I have a feeling I didnt) but 14 year old me thought that Jesus-CIA line was like so deep man.

I love his earnest philosophical wrangling.

Anyway, the music and playing is so great across the board on the The The records that I can handle the lyrical stumbles.

Pretty nice write-up here: http://thequietus.com/articles/16952-the-the-mind-bomb-anniversary-review

When it came out, it certainly felt like a bit of a let-down compared to the previous two albums but it has certainly aged nicely what with the prophetic aspects and Johnny Marr's fantastic guitar.

I miss Matt.

I feel Matt peaked with the first version of "Uncertain Smile", so my fave album of his is Burning Blue Soul. I quite like "Gravitate To Me" though.

xpost Wow, what an overheated, overwritten piece. Well-suited to the album, I suppose, which like most of his stuff is so musically sharp and on-point it offsets the OTT insanity of the vocals.

I've never heard this album, should I bother?

Opening track in search of an album. Rescreen Infected or straight to Dusk imo

I don't get how one could dismiss the bulk of this so easily. I like Infected, and Dusk is my favorite, but most of this album is great.

Also, I know I've said it before, but this era of this band was so great live. Like, this is awesome, though I wish I could find the 1993 version:

htts://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wa-qOb8eI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wa-qOb8eI

So finally got around to listening to this. My initial impression is that the first half of the album does more for me than the second half, and some of the lyrics made me wince more than a little.

What, you don't like songs about being "all spurted out"?

Holy shit, I had no idea that Matt Johnson was getting back - or got? - together with Johnny Marr to make new music.

I am looking at the lyrics to "The Violence of Truth" again and really, it's amazing that I gave this dude any chances beyond this album because everything about that song is 100% horrorshow.

i never did get a response ..
sorry.

ha I did wonder!

imo DJP gave them more chances because he listened to Good Morning Beautiful again

An idea which just came to mind. Somehow Johnny Marr seems to like to play guitar for singers who sing in a mannered style. And his guitar really fits well with them.

Theer is a new film out, The Inertia Variations, and it includes a new song from him. And both film and song are good. I went to a screening where Matt Johnson did a Q&A afterwards, and there should be a bunch of stuff coming out soon. Not a lot of it is new The The songs, though.

The film is a documentary about Matt Johnson, I should mention :)

Thanks for the heads up, had no idea.

it has had five screenings in Sweden and one in Copenhagen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6831Y1EPoqM

kept my 7" sealed .. so not heard this yet.

ok, thats very Dusk sounding.

love it.

now lets have an album.

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/matt-johnson-the-the-interview/

The The touring the US this fall!

Is this the de facto The The thread? Because I'm seeing him live tomorrow :)

There is also this cd/sd thread:
The The: C/D, S&D