437 Hello The The - Uncertain Smile

First  charted  : 4  December  1982

Chart  peak : 68

Number  of  hits : 14

It's  a  nice  coincidence  that  this  came  in  - rather  lower  down -  in  the  same  week  as  Beat  Surrender  as  later  in  the  decade  its  creator  would  become  one  of  the  more  convincing  contenders  for  Weller's  crown  as  pop's  principal  polemicist. Matt  Johnson,  who  to  all  intents  and  purposes  was/is   The  The , was  another  alternative  artist  trying  to  come  in  from  the  cold  but  doesn't  feature  in  many  of  the  New  Pop  narratives  because  he  didn't  crack  the  Top  40  until  some  years  later.

Matt  Johnson  was  born  in  London  in  1961  and  tried  to  get  a  band  together  when  he  was  16  with  ads  in  the  NME  citing  his  influences  as  Velvet  Underground, Syd  Barrett  and  shock  merchants  Throbbing  Gristle . His  musical  ambitions  were  facilitated  by  getting  a  job  with  the  De  Wolfe  music  production  company  who  had  a  studio  in  London.  Even  before  forming  his  band  he  had  recorded  his  own  demo  album " See  Without  Being  Seen " on  cassettes  which  he  tried  to  flog  at  gigs   in  the  capital. In  1979  he  recorded  another  album, "Spirits" with  the  first  in  a long  line of  temporary  The  The  members   Colin  Lloyd-Tucker ; it  has  never  seen  the  light  of  day.  Lloyd-Tucker  was  replaced  by  a  synthesiser  player  Keith  Laws  and  it  was  he  who  came  up  with  the  name. They  made  their  live  debut  in  May  1979 as  a  duo  supporting  Scritti  Politti.

They  soon  acquired  a  rhythm  section  for  live  work  but  didn't  use  them  on  their  first  single,  "Controversial  Subject"  in  August  1980. Released  on  4AD  and  produced  by  Wire's  Gilbert  and  Lewis  it's  determinedly  uncommercial  with  Matt  tunelessly  intoning  what  sound  like  disconnected  slogans  over  a  primitive  drum  machine  and  blasts  of  atonal  guitar  noise. Keith's  synth  does  sound  like  it's  playing  an  OMD-like  melody  towards  the  end  but  that's  the  only  concession  to  the  mainstream.

The  The  had  slimmed  back  down  to  a  duo  for  their  next  recording , the  song  "Untitled" which  appeared  on  the  Some  Bizarre  album  in  early 1981. As  the  title  suggests  there's  no  real  song , just  a  few  slogans, half  of  them  unintelligible  , intoned  over  an  electronic  backing  track  vaguely  reminiscent  of  The  Human  League's  Being  Boiled. It  isn't  worthy  of  much  attention. The  duo  then  signed  with  Some  Bizarre  and  released  their  second  single  "Cold  Spell  Ahead". It's  hard  to  write  about  "Cold  Spell  Ahead"  as  a  precursor  to "Uncertain  Smile"  because  for  the  first  couple of  minutes it  is  "Uncertain  Smile". The  instrumentation  is  different  but  the words  and  melody  are the  same. Then  it  suddenly  switches  to  a  completely  different  tempo  and  becomes  a  doomy  Goth  rock  track. It  sounds  like two  completely  separate  songs  have  been  carelessly  bolted  together.

Laws  now  felt  he  was  being  edged  out of  the  creative  process  and  left  to  study  psychology. He  is  now  a  respected  professor  of  neuropsychology  at  the  University  of  Hertfordshire  with  numerous  scientific  articles  to  his  credit.

Matt  persevered  and  took  advantage of  his  lax  contract  with  Some  Bizarre  to  go  back  to  4AD  and  record  an  album  as  "Matt  Johnson"   entitled  "Burning  Blue  Soul"  although  it  was eventually  reissued  as  a "The The"  album  to  keep  all  his  work  in  the  same  record  racks. "Burning  Blue  Soul"  is  a  challenging  but  rewarding  album  that  moves  towards  the  light  in  terms  of   making  his  music  more  accessible  while  plumbing  the  depths  of  teenage  depression  and  rejection  of  religion  in  the  lyrics. There's  quite  a  few  good  in-depth  reviews  of  the  album  on  the  'net  but  this  one  by  Keith  Laws  himself   must  take  precedence.  It  was  released  in  August  1981  and  didn't  chart.

Nevertheless  Some  Bizarre   got  a  distribution   deal  with  Epic  and   Matt  was  dispatched  to  New  York  to  record  a  few  tracks  with  producer  Mike  Thorne. From  these  sessions  came  "Uncertain  Smile"  which  placed  the  first  verse  of  "Cold  Spell  Ahead"  into  a  new  context, a  relatively  romantic  pop  song  about  tentative  happiness  although  Matt's  limited  vocal  range  was  always  going  to  curtail  any  prospect  of  becoming  a  troubador. Nevertheless  his  Lou  Reed -influenced  sardonic  vocal  is  sweetened  by  flute  and  xylophones  ( also  responsible  for  that  immediately  arresting  intro  )   and  after  a  second  verse  the  song  has  a  long  instrumental  coda  with  a  saxophone  solo from  Crispin  Cloe. On  the  album  version  a  year  later  this  coda  was  thoroughly  re-worked  substituting  a  lengthy  piano  solo  from  Jools  Holland.  David  Jensen  played  this  to  death  which  probably  accounts  for  its  chart  placing  but  Matt  would  have  to  wait  a  bit  longer  for  his  real  breakthrough.