This Is The Day - The The.

It’s Monday, peoples – so thought you could do with a bit of cheering up. This track, from the brilliant The The, is a beguiling mix of cynical gloom and romantic optimism – broadcast from Thatcher’s Britain. The The is actually Matt Johnson, and the music he made around this era is best described as “synth-noir”. It has the bittersweet quality of much of my favourite music.

The The made several amazing albums between 1982 and 2002, mostly with political themes. He sang about things like the rise of Islam and the Americanization of Britain - and even did an anti-apartheid track in the late 80’s called Born in the New S.A., which sampled Pik Botha saying “I am not a racist”. Over the years he’s had several line-ups, and also collaborated with Squeeze’s Jools Holland, Orange Juice’s Zimbabwean drummer Zeke Manyika, The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, J.G. Thirlwell (a.k.a. Foetus), Sinead O’Connor and Neneh Cherry.

This particular song was covered by the Manic Street Preachers in 2011, but nothing can top the original. Unhappy Monday!!

Contributed by @jonathanbeggs.