Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Lesser spotted The The frontman Matt Johnson has been making a comeback in recent years, wrapping his head round a slew of family bereavements while retaining that cultural curiosity which has inspired many of his past gems on new album Ensoulment.
The Ensouled World Tour is a game of two halves – new album rendered start to finish and then the greatest semi-hits as a reward for paying attention in the lengthy first half (no chore, as it transpired).
Old hands James Eller and D.C. Collard are back in the gang alongside young(er) buck Barrie Cadogan but it was not just the personnel who were familiar – Johnson’s ability to blend the personal and political in pithy portraiture were showcased on new track Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake, an autobiographical snapshot with some state-of-the-nation qualities.
Johnson went fully personal on Where Do We Go When We Die, his mellow and mellifluous requiem for his father, and documented “my time as a truant” on Down by the Frozen River. While that song was written with the benefit of hindsight, some of his earliest teenage musings in the second half were performed with perspective. Encore selection Uncertain Smile was introduced as “an unrequited love song I wrote as a kid” but jammed out with exultant piano solo by Collard.
Syncopated syndrum, twinkling synths and glorious burnished guitar accompanied Slow Emotion Replay while the band honoured the big 80s production values of Sweet Bird of Truth and Lonely Planet. Soul and funk influences and industrial punk flourishes remain part of the distinctive mix more than forty years on while there was no mistaking the sound of Johnson’s baritone purr in our ears once again on this welcome return.
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