August 9 - Kingdom of Rain

I have already visited The The's great album Mind Bomb once this year, but it's time for another trip. I think this week is shaping up to be about rain - or at least songs where rain is used in the title. I am not yet quite sure how it will all shape up, but today's song is nothing short of beautiful. Matt Johnson, the leader (and singer) of The The recruited the help of Sinead O'Connor for one of the more beautiful songs about a broken relationship I know. The lyrics are matched perfectly by a very melancholic melody - and the two voices blend really well. The inclusion of Sinead O'Connor here is a stroke of genius - this was before she broke through the mainstream with the Prince song Nothing Compares 2U, so at this point she only had the album The Lion and the Cobra out. To my ears, The Lion and the Cobra is a really good album - and a lot edgier than her subsequent work musically (her lyrics have always had an edge to them).

April 5 - Armageddon Days (Are Here Again)

It's hard to imagine that today's song actually is 27 years old, as the topic is even more appropriate today. The year was 1989, and Matt Johnson, who for some time really had been The The, had teamed up with Johnny Marr, who had been in The Smiths with Morrissey, to create Mind Bomb. Johnson's voice is complimented perfectly by Marr's guitar, and the style carried over to 1992's Dusk.

However, today's song is from Mind Bomb, and it was written as Salman Rushdie received a fatwa - or a death threat - from Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran that yielded several failed assassination attempts on both him and his publishers. It is deceptively upbeat for its topic - but pay close attention to the lyrics, and I think you will understand why I think this still is highly appropriate!