Matt Johnson continued to put out great records for many years, but he was never quite as meaningful and hard hitting to me personally as when he put out Soul Mining in 1983. That record hit me at just the right age, seventeen going on eighteen. Just at the age where I was wondering at the nature of the universe and suspecting I might have something to say about it. The best age of all really.
And This is the Day was and remains my favourite thing on the record because it expresses all of that perfectly. in a Pop song that deserves every second of its almost five minute running time . It's just about a guy sitting in his room. A guy who thinks too much and seems to be teetering wonderfully between abject failure and grace. It has one of the best Pop lyrics I've ever heard and a glorious melody to boot. It's existentialism pure and simple and like so much of the wonderful music that came out at that point of time is worthy of consideration with Camus and Sartre. And I don't give a fig if you think that that's pretentious. The single reached # 71 in the UK singles charts in September 1983. Pearls before swine. It should have been Top 5 at the very least. I'm now feeling guilty about placing it # 12 here. But there is plenty of great stuff to come.
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