The The - Solitude (1993)

This collection of remixes and reworkings was the first album by The The to have ever graced my at the time little and naive ears. My tennis instructor Nick gave me this cd when I was around 17 or 18 and it broadened my slowly developing taste for music that was two decades old.

Matt Johnson's music has always been sultry and passionate, overflowing with a lust for life, at times even incendiary. Many of his songs start off subtle enough, like a cigarette being innocently flicked from a car window that lands in a nearby field and starts a small brush fire which the wind catches and becomes this raging conflagration. Its this very intensity that sets The The apart from other musicians of the era, and earned Matt Johnson a level of semi-stardom. "That was the Day" is the casiotone alter ego to the famous song of reminiscence, "This is the Day." Other highlights on this album are "Jealous of Youth" (video below) and the groovy, sweaty remix of "Helpline Operator." Good music for drinking alcohol and inflating one's ego before going out and drinking more alcohol.

Rating: 8.5/10

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/?74m55fmzki3f7nc

I wanna live, I wanna live, but I ain't a big enough man to do anything other than think