569. The The - Infected (1986)
















Track Listing

1. Infected
2. Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire)
3. Heartland
4. Angels Of Deception
5. Sweet Bird Of Truth
6. Slow Train To Dawn
7. Twilight Of A Champion
8. Mercy Beat

Review

This is the second The The album on the list, and even though I didn't like it as much as Soul Mining, it is still a pretty good album. The The is probably one of the bands that have better married political message to Pop music.

This is pretty catchy pop music, with very angry political message at the front of it, and to that successfully without just sounding like agitprop one has to be pretty talented.

It is a bit more of the same that we got in Soul Mining, and I don't think the music is any worse, but the shock value of that album is not replicated here, as you kind of know what to expect, but if you liked that album and want a continuation you could do worse than getting it here.

Track Highlights

1. Heartland
2. Out Of The Blue (Into The Fire)
3. Infected
4. Slow Train To Dawn

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is reputed that the album used 67 different musicians and 3 producers. The money lavished on it and its companion full-length video seemed at the time to be extravagant for an obscure band.

Many of the tracks carried on with Johnson's main topics of his feeling of alienation from society as all whole and the melancholy that this generates in young males. However around this time Johnson was becoming aware of "World Issues" or the culture clash between the West and Islam. The song "Sweet Bird of Truth" is about a pilot trying to save his plane whilst flying over Arabia and was released just prior to the Reagan Libyan bombings which affected sales when record shops refused to promote it.

Heartland: