Due to an M&M's TV spot, The The got perhaps their largest exposure in the US in 2007. The commercial utilized this album's "This is the Day" giving the audience a catchy piece of 80s indie rock. While cute, the commercial does not show the deep, dramatic and in fact life-affirming power of the song. After a long time of not listening all that much I put this on the turntable on a whim. Good call on my part.
The rest of the album is not far behind. I will be honest that I've listened to the first side much more than the second, but that is not to say it's only half-great, but that first side... fuggedaboudit. Anchored by "This is the Day," it starts off with the dark and intense yet insanely catchy "I've Been Waiting for Tomorrow All of My Life." At this point it is pretty clear that The The's pretty-much-only member Matt Johnson is a bit overly tragic in persona. However, either the conviction in his voice will make you believe it or his knack for songwriting will make you not care. Most likely it will be both. He's got a real skill for stretching out his songs too as only two songs are below 5 minutes in time. Not only do these secret epics remain interesting for up to over nine minutes (the appropriately-named "GIANT"), Johnson uses them as an opportunity to show off his diverse skills in his genre-bending solos. Likewise Side one closer "Uncertain Smile" featuring a piano solo from Jools Holland may even be the album's finest cut at nearly seven minutes that leave you still wanting more.
This is the album today's college kids are trying to make in their dorm rooms with their bootleg copies of ProTools and budget M-Boxes. Hence it serves as evidence that such technology is a bad influence on music.
The The - Soul Mining (1984)
Here's the original video for "This is the Day"
In other news, I think there was a problem with the original upload of the Chills/Van Dyke Parks collaboration "Water Wolves," so I fixed that by putting up the whole record on that very old article.
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