A companion for Infected ?

May 17, 2007 1:31 PM

[Musofilter] What goes with the forgotten 1986 masterpiece : The The - Infected ?

I want to burn the album to a disc and because it only has 8 tracks there is plenty of room to add another long player on there (showing my age, I know).

So what other album do you think would compliment ?
(which in my opin still sounds as fresh as it did 21 yikes ! years ago.)

Who would suit ? Another one from back then or a modern artist ?

Hive mind. Your thoughts please.

posted by Webbster to media & arts (34 answers total)

Early Billy Bragg?
posted by destro at 1:35 PM on May 17, 2007

Why wouldn't you choose the earlier (and imho superior) Soul Mining?
posted by punilux at 1:42 PM on May 17, 2007

Perhaps Wilco, Yo La Tengo, Radiohead, Mogwai? I always dug The The and these are the similar bands that I'm into these days.

Slightly OT - I heard a The The song used as a soundtrack for a TV ad the other day and it freaked me out!

posted by suki at 1:49 PM on May 17, 2007

Is "The The" pronounced Thee Thee, Thee Thuh, Thuh Thee, or Thuh Thuh?
posted by kirkaracha at 2:05 PM on May 17, 2007

Don't add anything. It should be heard as a singular experience. Sorry, I'm an album purist who dislikes bonus tracks etc.
posted by davebush at 2:10 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Much like punilux, I would stay the course and add another The The album. Unlike punilux, I vote for Dusk. Talk about a masterpiece!
posted by minervous at 2:14 PM on May 17, 2007

Or (upon further consideration), maybe ...
- The Kitchens of Distinction's The Death of Cool
- The Charletons UK's Between 10th and 11th
- any early Echo & the Bunnyman?
posted by minervous at 2:26 PM on May 17, 2007

seconding Soul Mining - great album with the added bonus of that Jools Holland piano solo
posted by poissonrouge at 2:49 PM on May 17, 2007

Trio - Bye Bye

Maybe some Thomas Leer?
posted by rhizome at 3:02 PM on May 17, 2007

I've got a ton of 12" single tracks and remixes which were released off the back of it. And if you didn't know, the entire album has a video too.

But if we're looking for something to make up the difference between the end of the last track and a CD's capacity (notwithstanding my agreement with the poster above that you shouldn't fuck with perfection), then I suggest you append the CD single of 'Jealous of Youth'.

Or, if you've got the space, there's always Mindbomb. I'm of the opinion that the album after Infected is a lot more like it than is its predecessor.
posted by genghis at 3:05 PM on May 17, 2007

Speaking of Jools...

"Squeeze: Singles 45 and Under." You need to balance the growl with something lighter -- yet from the same terroir.
posted by turducken at 3:24 PM on May 17, 2007

My first thought is another forgotten masterpiece from the same era, "Babble" by That Petrol Emotion.
posted by carrienation at 3:32 PM on May 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

Soul Mining, really. In fact, I'd say Soul Mining first, then Infected. But maybe that's just me.
posted by nkknkk at 3:34 PM on May 17, 2007

Is "The The" pronounced Thee Thee, Thee Thuh, Thuh Thee, or Thuh Thuh?

Thuh Thuh, in my experience -- I worked in a record store in the 1980s.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:42 PM on May 17, 2007

Midnight Oil? Came out about the same time.
posted by tkchrist at 3:44 PM on May 17, 2007

Buffalo Stance!
posted by Methylviolet at 4:08 PM on May 17, 2007

Well, something to note— your track listing won't generally show up in iTunes if you burn with extra tracks. That's what finally tipped me over.
That said, I believe my cassette dub of it had The Cure's Head on the Door as filler.
posted by klangklangston at 4:39 PM on May 17, 2007

Klangklangston had me looking up my old cassette dub of Soul Mining - turns out t had Echo and the Bunnymen's eponymous album on the other side. May be another good choice.
posted by nkknkk at 4:53 PM on May 17, 2007

I got it at the same time as Gene Loves Jezebel's Desire so that's what I'd put on there.

Course if you didn't live in the same Staten Island apartment as me that summer, your experience may vary.
posted by bink at 5:14 PM on May 17, 2007

I'd nominate Mindbomb. I just listened to it recently, and it's still timely ("If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today/He'd be gunned down cold by the CIA")

Here's a great little review that talks about Infected and Mindbomb, and raises one point I neglected to mention: Johnny Marr. It also invokes this lyric: "God doesn't belong to the Yankee dollar / God doesn't plant the bombs for Hezbollah . . . Islam is rising / The Christians mobilising / The world is on its elbows and knees / It's forgotten the message and worships the creeds"

Then again, I've been known to be a bit of a purist myself, and might lean towards just burning the album straight....but I don't know, I haven't burned a straight music cd in ages.
posted by nevercalm at 5:23 PM on May 17, 2007

I like Dusk and Mindbomb- I'd probably choose Dusk. If I wanted something other than The The, I think I would choose Violent Femmes' Violent Femmes, just for extra angst factor. Or maybe Skinny Puppy's Mind, the Perpetual Intercourse to get super heavy, or Flaunt It by Sigue Sigue Sputnik, just to be an idiot.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:26 PM on May 17, 2007

Man--I totally forgot about The The. I bought Infected after I saw them on Night Flight. I am going to go look for it now in my mess o'music of CDs and albums.
posted by govtdrone at 6:35 PM on May 17, 2007

my old cassette dub of Soul Mining - turns out t had Echo and the Bunnymen's eponymous album on the other side

Wow - so did mine. They seemed to go well together then, might still do now
posted by bunglin jones at 7:27 PM on May 17, 2007

Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
Vangelis - Bladerunner Soundtrack

The The brings back memories of June 1994 and walking in the early evening under leafy green trees, hearing birds chirp before dark.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:39 PM on May 17, 2007

I dated a girl from Ireland that summer who said that Mind Bomb was considered 'rebel music' in that Catholic country.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:40 PM on May 17, 2007

Even though I get rid of everything, I still have my import copy of Soul Mining with bonus extra 12-inch! I can remember exactly the circumstances of its purchase, and man that instant nostalgia just gave me whiplash.

(I heart Infected, too)

I might put some other Some Bizarre music with it. Like Soft Cell, or Coil, or Foetus.
posted by pinky at 1:04 AM on May 18, 2007

and ps - hearing "This Is The Day" in both a candy commercial and a Dockers commercial really made me feel....confused. I know I should be used to this by now, but it always comes as a surprise.
posted by pinky at 1:06 AM on May 18, 2007

I would also say Soul Mining, I don't understand the dislike of bonus tracks, the cassette came with no less than 6 bonus tracks, with some good stuff included. It does take me back a bit, I even wrote an essay on The The on my A level General Studies exam.
posted by biffa at 3:29 AM on May 18, 2007

+1 for Soul Mining

Also consider 45RPM which is not "just another singles album" as it features the original single mixes, not the album cuts.

Good initial choice though, Matt Johnson is a genius and, as some have pointed out, his lyrics have been quite prophetic.
posted by SpacemanRed at 5:20 AM on May 18, 2007

going to go out on a limb and suggest burning blue soul. much more raw and edgy then soul mining, and a good companion to infected.

bonus: matt even uses the line 'my soul is burning blue' in the title track of infected.
posted by lester at 6:19 AM on May 18, 2007

i'm going to offer another suggestion because if i made a cd of infected/buring blue soul, i'd put buring blue soul first. if it was a second, i'd opt for the more recent release, naked self.
posted by lester at 6:30 AM on May 18, 2007

I'm going to second 45RPM. The remixes it has are IMHO better than the album versions for a lot of the songs.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 7:35 AM on May 18, 2007

Another one for Burning Blue Soul or Soul Mining. Infected is my least favorite The The album (sorry)... I think its best moments were only hints of the BBS and Soul Mining, so I'd definitely choose those to augment. (Other The The is in a completely different genre almost, it just wouldn't mesh at all.)

Non The The suggestions? It would have of that same '80s electronic spirit (without being Depeche Mode), so...
Talk Talk?
Japan or Sylvian?

They lack Matt Johnson's vitriol, but have a similar emotional quality I think.
posted by ibeji at 8:45 AM on May 18, 2007

Thomas Dolby "The Flat Earth"
posted by obloquy at 2:56 PM on May 18, 2007