My Amazon Reviews: The The "Infected"

Infectious
4 Out Of 5 Stars

By far the best of Matt Johnson's The The albums, "Infected" is like an apocalyptic disco, a nightmarish whirl of dance beats, visions of doom and a cynical view of Johnson's Britain in the late 80's. "I'm a man without a soul," he proclaims on "Out Of the Blue," and Johnson portrays everything around him as going straight to Hell. Into Johnson's musical combat zone are rant's that the UK is just "the 51'st state of the USA" and how easily we slip into war mentality ("Angels Of Deception"). It's not easy listening.

The funny thing is, "Infected" is a high polished album. Compared to the synth pop that dominated "Soul Mining" and the rawness of "Mind Bomb," the albums that bookended "Infected," it's Saturday Night Fever in Dante's Inferno. There's plenty of angry lyricism and plenty of cynicism; after all, this was the Thatcher era of England. Everything from Religion to Love is suspect in Johnson's mind, even when he tries to get sweet with his honey on the "Slow Train To Dawn." There's plenty of energy here, but it's covered with dance horns, electric drums, and Johnson's unique voice. There weren't too many of his contemporaries that dared to make a whole concept album about love and death and political diatribes, but with "Infected," The The created an album that still sounds as powerful now as it did upon its release.

     

My Amazon Reviews: The The "45RPM: The Singles"

What a Perfect Day
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Matt Johnson, who operated under the nom de rock The The, was a great English crank. He wasn't simply an angry young man, he was just P-O'd. He managed that anger into a series of ever better albums, which included two powerful collections called "Infected" and "Mind Bomb," where his anger and musical ambition merged into a whole. The oddest thing was that he never really had a proper band (with the exception of "Mind Bomb"), yet he still managed to get his point across.

The 45RPM collection wrangles the best of the singles and includes primarily the single mixes, which is a good thing for novices because Johnson's sophisticated aggression can be a lot in big doses. "Infected" marries a dance beat to the paranoia about Aids, while "The Beat(en) Generation" laments apathy in a near folk context. There's a sense of humor, as well, when "Armageddon Days" playfully invokes The Sweet and "Ballroom Blitz" before breaking into a diatribe about religious hypocrisy. In fact, the only time Johnson ever really toned down for an entire album was the aptly named "Dusk," from which "Dogs of Lust" is the best of that album's three representations.

The The wasn't afraid to go loud and aggressive (when I saw them on the "Mind Bomb" tour, Johnny Marr was on guitar and it was easily the loudest concert I've ever attended), but he also unafraid of baring his soul. Early classics "Uncertain Smile" and the deceptively chipper "Perfect Day" show that from the very start, Johnson wasn't going to be one of your typical angry young men. With 45RPM, he delivers conclusive proof that he was a lot smarter than his limited success in America ever shown.