© Christie Goodwin
After 25 years without a full album of original songs, Matt Johnson of The The returns with Ensoulment – a powerful, live-recorded reflection shaped by time, collaboration, and the quiet urgency of the pandemic.
For Matt Johnson, the driving force behind The The, making a new album was never about meeting deadlines. It was about waiting for the right moment. With the release of Ensoulment, his first full album of original songs in 25 years, Johnson has returned from a long creative pause with music that feels urgent, emotionally charged, and unmistakably his.
“It was the first album of commercial songs I had written and released since NakedSelf in 2000,” Johnson told Today Radio. “I have been doing a lot of film soundtrack work and one-off singles, but this was the first full-scale album. And the last few years, especially going through the pandemic, sharpened things. It added a certain urgency.”
The result is a record shaped by both time and connection. Johnson reunited with longtime collaborators, including bassist James Eller, keyboardist DC Collard, drummer Earl Harvin, and guitarist Barrie Cadogan.
Working with co-producer and engineer Warne Livesey, he assembled Ensoulment like a family reunion, built on trust, experience, and a shared obsession with craft. “This was the band I wanted to make a new album with because they are brilliant musicians who really care about their sound,” Johnson said. “Each of them is obsessive about what they do, in a good way.”
Some of the album’s songs, including Some Days I Drink My Coffee by the Grave of William Blake, had been waiting years to be finished. But it was the quiet of the pandemic that finally brought Johnson back to his writing bureau, a piece of furniture once owned by his father. “I just thought, you know what, I am going to sit there and write this album,” he said.
Working in the early mornings with just an acoustic guitar, Johnson pieced together the rough sketches that would become Ensoulment. Recording took place at Real World Studios in Bath, where much of the album was tracked live in just six days. The band’s setup, face-to-face with instruments in hand, brought warmth and immediacy to the sessions. “That is why it has probably got quite a warm, live feeling,” Johnson explained. “We could all see each other, a lot of it is recorded live.”
The The’s new album Ensoulment is out now. The band plays den Atelier in Luxembourg on 25 June as part of their Ensouled World Tour. You can hear the full interview with Matt Johnson below.
