Newbeats
“So many bands get in a position where they could really put across important ideas and say important things, but they don’t,” observes Matt Johnson, alias The The. “A lot of bands start off left-field and everything, and then they get a little taste of success and start diluting what they’re doing and chasing after the old dollar-shaped carrot.
Newbeats
HE‘S THE THE
“So many bands get in a position where they could really put across important ideas and say important things, but they don’t,” observes Matt Johnson, alias The The. “A lot of bands start off left-field and everything, and then they get a little taste of success and start diluting what they’re doing and chasing after the old dollar-shaped carrot. I want to do the opposite of that. When you get some success, that’s when I think you should start getting more radical and confront things more.”
True to the artist’s word, Johnson’s work has grown more extreme as he’s gained in popularity. His 1980 U.K.-only debut LP Burning Blue Soul (released under his own name) was a fairly insular affair, but 1984’s warm, tuneful Soul Mining hinted at something scary lurking beneath its calm surface. Now, instead of following Soul Mining’s overseas hit “Uncertain Smile” with more of the same, The The gives us the stark, disturbing (and hummable) Infected.