With an Australian tour ahead, the fabled THE THE have announced a new album ‘Ensoulment’, their first studio album of new songs in a quarter century. This 12-song album will be released on Cinéola / earMUSIC on Friday, September 6. As a taste of what’s to come, the single ‘Cognitive Dissident’ is out today and it is clearly business as usual, with Matt Johnson’s distinctive rumble shaking the speakers, delivering his visceral lyrics with a delicious acerbity. This is as good as anything THE THE have released, and that is saying a lot.
‘Cognitive Dissident’ is co-produced by Matt Johnson and Warne Livesey and written by Matt Johnson and Barrie Cadogan, who are joined by other long-standing THE THE stalwarts James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards) and Earl Harvin (drums) plus Gillian Glover (backing vocals). The cover artwork for this single is a previously-unpublished work by Andy Dog.
Johnson says about the subject matter of the new single:
We certainly live in interesting times. The world is becoming more inverted, weird and hallucinogenic by the day.
The video is animated by Craig “Goonzi” Gowans at 12 Inch Media.
‘Cognitive Dissident’ is available to download and stream here.
Encompassing characteristic topics ranging from love & sex, war & politics, life & death – to the meaning of what it is to be human in the 21st century – ‘Ensoulment’ was written, demoed and mixed at Studio Cinéola in London, the base of THE THE’s main creative force, Matt Johnson.
The songs were further refined in rehearsals ahead of a six-day session at Real World Studios near Bath, where Matt was joined by long-standing THE THE members James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums), and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar). The album also marks the return of co-producer and engineer Warne Livesey, who previously worked on landmark THE THE albums Infected (1986) and Mind Bomb (1989). Additional performances include Gillian Glover (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (horns), Sonya Cullingford (fiddle) and Danny Cummings (percussion).
‘Ensoulment’ is available to preorder here.
THE THE also recently announced another world tour, commencing September 2024, the band’s first since their hugely successful The Comeback Special world tour in 2018. Even before the announcement of Ensoulment, the Ensouled world tour has been selling out fast.
ANZ TOUR – NOV 2024
14 November – Auckland, New Zealand SOLD OUT
16 November 2024 – Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia SOLD OUT
17 November 2024 – Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
18 November 2024 – Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide, Australia
21 November 2024 – Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
22 November 2024 –Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
23 November 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, Australia SOLD OUT
24 November 2024 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane, Australia
27 November 2024 – Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, Australia
Tickets here
www.thethe.com/tour-dates
[…] setlist tonight features the band playing the new album ‘Ensoulment’ in full, this is followed by a career-spanning odyssey, each song a sharp fragment of the band’s […]