Album Review: Ensoulment by The The

It's hard to talk about Ensoulment without marvelling at the gap between it and Johnson's last long playing transmission, NakedSelf, released an extraordinary quarter of a century ago. At times it felt as if the silence was complete and a line had been drawn under The The's gripping journey through darkness and light. While absorbing Ensoulment it's worth recalling Johnson's musical path, fractionally too young for punk but still caught up in the melee, even if a bit bored by the 'meat and potatoes' nature of what he heard.

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Given the cyclical nature of time, perhaps it was inevitable that The The‘s defining works of the 1980s and 1990s would eventually be seen as prescient, even prophetic. The The’s sole constant creative force, Matt Johnson, sounded the alarm about religious wars, dangerous dogma, moral relativism, instant-gratification culture, and more, all against a backdrop of state-of-the-art indie pop music. Over the course of unforgettable albums such as Infected (1986), Mind Bomb (1989).

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Back in the late 20th century there were a lot of takers for Matt Johnson's musings on love, loss and religion. As the founder and sole constant member of The The, the multi-instrumentalist pushed himself - and anyone up the task of working with him - to health-threatening extremes. The resulting albums - Soul Mining, Infected and Dusk - made an artform of self-examination, while The The's ever-revolving line-up created music of both searing intensity and warm introspection. But in 2002, after touring the neglected NakedSelf album, Johnson shut his guitar case and walked away from the music industry.

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