I don’t know why, but something about the band logo and its placement in the record store I worked at made me think that The The was a garage rock band. I can’t explain it. What I can explain is this extremely pleasant surprise: that when I finally started listening to them I heard the sounds of one of the best purveyors of art rock and “sophisti-pop” to ever be magnetized onto tape. Take Mind Bomb, an album that somehow predicts the acid house emergence onto the mainstream charts while still maintaining the dark swagger of the eighties. Atmospheric, moody, like early Nine Inch Nails with a haircut and a horn section, then suddenly bouncy, jangling guitars and harmonicas, then suddenly still, shimmering pop duets. Do the dishes to it or turn the lights off and relish in its dark majesty.