Rise

Format

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  5044692CD  £6.00

Label

Epic / Sony Music Distribution

The The

45 RPM: The Singles of The The

New Wave Post Punk like steely dan the the wasn't so much a band as a personal musical conceitalter ego this one for english writerperformer matt johnson while johnson's band came of age during the english synth pop boom of the early 80s electricity was about the only common denominator between johnson and his fashion slave contemporaries indeed the sense of conscientious outrage that informs many of the two decades worth of singles collected here fostered a perception of johnson as something of a prickly malcontent but fashion was never an end in itself for johnson even on early pop fare like 'uncertain smile' and 'perfect' johnson's restless creative bent has led him to remix many of these tracks anew ensuring that this set would never be seen as mere artistic obituary johnson's reputation as a sociopolitical crank reached its zenith on tracks like 'heartland' which decries the reverse cultural colonization of britain by america and 'armageddon days' a shotgun blast at panreligious hypocrisy here introduced by a hilarious parody of the sweet's 'ballroom blitz' are you ready jesus yeah budda uhhuh but subsequent history has only proven him sagacious and if anyone thought they had johnson pegged his acclaimed 1995 hank williams tribute hanky panky represented here by a riveting reinvention of the country legend's 'i saw the light' surely set them scratching their heads again the set is rounded out by three strong new tracks