''Mind Bomb'' is the third studio album by English
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
band
The The
() are an English post-punk band. They have been active in various forms since 1979, with singer-songwriter Matt Johnson being the only constant band member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles ...
. It was released by
Some Bizzare
Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu E ...
/
Epic on 11 July 1989 and recorded between October 1988 and May 1989. It is the band's first album to feature former
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to emerg ...
guitarist
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...
.
The album peaked at No. 4 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
.
Overview
Matt Johnson assembled a full band of The The, retaining his role as singer, primary songwriter, frontman and guitarist (and playing keyboards and other instruments in the studio), and bringing in guitarist Johnny Marr. Johnson had known Marr since the early 1980s, and had attempted to entice him into an earlier version of The The prior to Marr forming The Smiths. Completing the lineup was former
Julian Cope
Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...
band bass guitarist James Eller and session drummer David Palmer (while D.C. Collard provided live keyboards). Additional instrumentation on ''Mind Bomb'' was provided by sessioneers, most notably keyboard player
Wix
Wix may refer to:
Computing
* WiX (Windows Installer XML Toolset), a software toolset
* Wix.com, an Israeli software company providing cloud-based web development services
Places
* Wix, Essex, United Kingdom
* Vicques, Switzerland, formerly
O ...
.
Instead of the darkly polished
dance-pop
Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...
styling of earlier albums ''
Soul Mining
''Soul Mining'' is the debut album by British post-punk/ synth-pop band (the 1981 album '' Burning Blue Soul'' was originally released by the band's frontman Matt Johnson as a solo album, but later reissues credited it to ). After a bidding wa ...
'' and ''
Infected'', ''Mind Bomb'' opens up the music to reveal a slow, winding textured world of sound, thanks in no small measure to Marr. Lyrical subjects include
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
, and
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
. The band would also play a world tour and record a follow-up, ''
Dusk
Dusk occurs at the darkest stage of twilight, or at the very end of astronomical twilight after sunset and just before nightfall.''The Random House College Dictionary'', "dusk". At predusk, during early to intermediate stages of twilight, enou ...
''. After that, Johnson dissolved it and went about his business alone again. A remastered version of the album was released in 2002.
Critical reception
''
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quiet ...
'' called the album "slow, expansive, looming into inexorable life with a rage that smouldered rather than flamed." ''
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Know ...
'' called it "bombastic in tone and filled with lyrical diatribes and anti-religious rants allied to distinctly unmelodic songs."
[ The '']Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called it "an embarrassing exercise in breast-beating," writing that "this bloated record is doubly distressing considering that it’s the work of the same man who turned out one of the most mysterious and lovely pop tunes of the ‘80s, 'Uncertain Smile'." In a retrospective review, ''Stylus Magazine
''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog.
Addi ...
'' wrote that "it’s easy to let the seemingly prescient relevance of the lyrics to ''Mind Bomb'' outweigh the actual music, which would be a shame because, with or without those words, it’s still a great record."
Track listing
Tracks written by Matt Johnson, except where noted.
# "Good Morning, Beautiful" – 7:28
# "Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)" – 5:40
# "The Violence of Truth" – 5:40
# "Kingdom of Rain" – 5:51
# "The Beat(en) Generation" – 3:04
# "August & September" – 5:45
# "Gravitate to Me" – 8:09 (Johnson, Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...
)
# "Beyond Love" – 4:22
Personnel
The band
* Matt Johnson – vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
, guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
, keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
* Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher, 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He first achieved fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987. He has since performed with numerous ...
– guitar, harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
* James Eller – bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
* David Palmer – drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
Additional musicians
* Sinéad O'Connor – female vocal on "Kingdom of Rain"
* Wix Wickens
Paul Wickens (born 27 March 1956) is an English musician, composer, and record producer, professionally known as Wix. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Wickens has worked with artists including Nik Kershaw, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bon J ...
– piano, keyboards, Hammond organ, accordion
* Warne Livesey
Warne Livesey (born 12 February 1959) is an English/Canadian music producer, mixing engineer, songwriter and musician. He has produced Midnight Oil, The The, Matthew Good Band and Deacon Blue.
Life and career
Warne Livesey started his career in ...
– keyboards, banjo, acoustic guitar
* Pandit Dinesh
Pandit Dinesh (born 29 May 1955) is a music composer and percussionist specializing in Indian rhythms. He uses the tabla, conga drums, and more. Dinesh is known for his collaborations with West India Company, Dizrhythmia, The Pax Trio, and Blanc ...
– percussion
* Danny Cummings – percussion
* Pedro Haldermann – percussion
* Chris White – saxophone
* Philip Todd – saxophone
* Ashley Slater
Ashley Slater (born 1961) is a British trombone player and best known for his narration on the television series Boo! as well as his work with Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) in the band Freak Power.
Career
In 1983 after leaving the army, Sl ...
– trombone
* John Eacott – flugel horn
* Mark Feltham – harmonica
* Danny Thompson
Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Mart ...
– upright bass on "August & September"
* Sarah Homer – clarinet
* Dai Pritchard – bass clarinet
* Hilary Storer – oboe
* Gavyn Wright
Gavyn Wright is a British violinist and orchestra leader with the London Session Orchestra and Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
He is best known for his orchestral arrangements on pop productions (including Elton John, Simply Red, Bush, Mecano, Oasis, ...
– Arabian fiddle
* Astarti String Section – strings
Artwork
Artwork and typography by Fiona Skinner.
Photography Andrew MacPherson.
Back cover image was created to reference photomontagist John Heartfield Der Sinn von Genf The Meaning of Geneva AIZ Cover, Berlin, Germany, 1932
Charts
References
{{Authority control
1989 albums
The The albums
Epic Records albums
Albums produced by Roli Mosimann
Albums produced by Warne Livesey