1. Uncertain Smile
2. Perfect
3. Sweet Bird Of Truth
4. Infected
5. Heartland
6. Armageddon Days
7. The Beat(en) Generation
8. Dogs Of Lust
9. Slow Emotion Replay
10. Love Is Stronger Than Death
11. This Is The Day (1994)
12. I Saw The Light
13. December Sunlight
14. Pillar Box Red
15. Deep Down Truth
1981 saw a deeply introspective singer-songwriter by the name of Matt Johnson
arrive on the scene, with his debut album Burning Blue Soul. Two years later,
as The The - an anti-name to trounce all anti-names - he was one of the era's
most intruiging one-man bands, at a time when peers such as Roddy Frame
(Aztec Camera) and Green Gartside (Scritti Politti) were also embarking on a
collision course with the mainstream.
Mavericks are few and far between these days, unfortunately. The rising
commercialisation of pop music, and its immersion into the bosom of
corporate-owned media and electronic giants has seen to that. But 20 years
ago, there was room in the charts for intelligent, inventive and original
talents such as Johnson, Frame and Gartside. The The's popularity rose with
each release from 1983's Soul Mining to 1993's Dusk, a steady progression
chartwise that mirrored Johnson's growing maturity and sharpening focus as a
writer.
Although singles success was limited to the occasional brush with the lower
half of the UK Top 30 (The Beat(en) Generation's #18 peak in 1989 proving a
career best), 45RPM is a concise encapsulation of the qualities which made
The The so consistently diverting and provocative.
Early gems Uncertain Smile and This Is The Day - the former in its original
version, the latter a reworking from the 1994 Dis-Infected EP - were
vignettes of ordinary life, shot through with an individual vision, always
hinting at the darker underbelly of human emotions and of life itself.
Johnson expanded his horizons on 1986's defining Infected album, his neuroses
and sharp intellect consumed by the decline of morality in the Western world
and the unnerving ascendency of potentially catastrophic conflict in the
Middle East. With almost prophetic precision, Sweet Bird Of Truth predated
the Gulf War by five years, with its first-person relaying the last thoughts
of a US airforce pilot as his plane is shot down over Saudi Arabia.
Infected was a dark, brooding and cautionary record, also casting its gaze
over the delapidated state of 80s Britian on Heartland, while the title track
drew upon the fear of an AIDS epidemic. Around this time, Johnson must have
been the scourge of media censors; Sweet Bird Of Truth, even in 1986, was
denied much airplay due to its controversial subject matter, the Infected
single's sleeve (a painting of the devil masturbating) caused outrage, and
the longform video which accompanied the album was given an 18 certificate.
Compared to today's climate of endless explicit titillation and soft-porn
that masquerades as pop culture, such fuss seems all the more ironic, and
almost Victorian in nature.
Undaunted, Johnson repeated the trick with Mind Bomb three years on, with
slightly less explosive results. The The officially became a band at this
point, augmented by a small group of musicians including former Smiths
guitarist Johnny Marr. The latter's influence was certainly evident on The
Beat(en) Generation, a deceptively breezy critique - "reared on a diet of
prejudice and misinformation, open your eyes.... open your imagination!". The
remainder of Mind Bomb was heavy-going, though, as heavily multi-tracked and
distorted vocals took on a near demonic tone and the spectre of the Middle
East unrest continued to dominate. Armageddon Days summed up the album's
modus operandi in 4 minutes.
Next came Dusk, another collection of intense musings, but Johnson's outlook
had reverted to the personal. A decade on from Soul Mining, a degree of
intimacy and subtlety returned to The The's music, aside from Dogs Of Lust's
impressive raw power that is. Since then, Johnson's profile has faltered
after a couple of holding operations - the Dis-infected EP revisiting old
material, followed by Hanky Panky, an album of Hank Williams cover versions -
and then The The's label Epic passed on a late 90s album of new material. A
parting of the ways ensued, although 45RPM contains a trio of brand new
tracks that show Johnson is still a creative force.
Pillarbox Red, scheduled as a single to promote this compilation but
withdrawn prior to release, is a gorgeous slice of retro pop, awash with
chiming guitars and swooping strings redolent of the soundtrack of numerous
espionage films from the mid-1960s. Deep Down Truth threatens to turn into
The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary, but again it's fresh ground for Johnson and
all the better for it.
For a singles collection, 45RPM is brief by current standards with a running
time of barely 60 minutes and technically just a dozen actual singles; the
omission of Slow Train To Dawn, the 4th release from Infected, is therefore
all the more perplexing. Nevertheless, Johnson and The The have long deserved
the retrospective treatment, and this is a fine option for those who might be
daunted by the 4CD London Town boxset also released this year.
(DVDfever Ed: At the time of placing this review online, this
CD appears to be unavailable, but the above Amazon link is for the Limited
Edition which includes a bonus CD of remixes.)
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
