The The

Why didn’t anybody tell me about how nice The The’s Dusk is?

Oh, somebody did, I guess. 5 years ago, when I wasn’t really ready to appreciate it. Telling somebody at the age of 20 that “you’ll love this music in 5 years time” is a surefire way to make them avoid it. And then when you finally get around to listening to it. 5 years have passed and the time is just right.

Uncanny.

But songs like True Happiness (this way lies), Helpline Operator and Slow Emotion Replay hit home in a quietly unsettling way:

Everybody knows what’s going wrong with the world
I don’t even know what’s going on in myself

Lord I’ve been here for so long
I can feel it coming down on me
I’m just a slow emotion replay
Of somebody I used to be

…

Curiously, The The makes Google go all wonky. Such too-clever 80s band names not only have a hard time with the search engines, but with most people as well. Recall this scene from the Commitments:

Jimmy Rabbitte: What do you call yourselves?
Derek: “And And And.”
Jimmy Rabbitte: “And And fuckin’ And?”
Derek: Well, Ray’s thinking of putting an exclamation mark after the second “and.” Says it’d look deadly on the posters.
Jimmy Rabbitte: Psshh…
Outspan Foster: You don’t like it? You think it should go at the end?
Jimmy Rabbitte: I think it should go up his arse.
Outspan Foster: Well, we’re not married to it.