Ever since their 2017 return – if Matt Johnson’s comeback under this name can be called such – THE THE have led a quiet life of a legacy ensemble, their recorded output encompassing tentatively musical box set, concert document and soundtracks, so 2000’s “NakedSelf” remained the band’s last album of new proper songs for almost quarter of a century – and even that was their first platter of original material since 1993’s “Dusk” – so nobody really expected the “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming” single would be followed seven years later by a fresh album. Yet September 6th is when “Ensoulment” will get issued.
Preceded by the brilliantly titled piece “Cognitive Dissident” (watch the video below), this opus – slated to arrive in a variety of formats, including CD hardcover mediabook, 10″ triple vinyl box set and cassette – features, alongside Johnson, bassist James Eller, keyboard player DC Collard and drummer Earl Harvin, who played with THE THE in the ’80 and ’90s, as guitarist Barrie Cadogan, with producer’s chair occupied by Warne Livesey, the man behind the board on the band’s classics “Infected” and “Mind Bomb”: as a result, there’s a lot of continuity involved to render the album robust and arresting.
Ensoulment
1. Cognitive Dissident
2. Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave Of William Blake
3. Zen & The Art Of Dating
4. Kissing The Ring Of POTUS
5. Life After Life
6. I Want To Wake Up With You
7. Down By The Frozen River
8. Risin’ Above The Need
9. Linoleum Smooth To The Stockinged Foot
10. Where Do We Go When We Die?
11. I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can’t Forget)
12. A Rainy Day In May
