Instead of the darkly polished dance-pop styling of earlier albums Soul Mining and Infected, Mind Bomb opens up the music to reveal a slow, winding textured world of sound, thanks in no small measure to Marr. Lyrical subjects include politics, religion, and romance. The band would also play a world tour and record a follow-up, Dusk. After that, Johnson dissolved it and went about his business alone again. A remastered version of the album was released in 2002. Hanky Panky: "The The – Hanky Panky (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment . Retrieved 9 June 2017. Offiziellecharts.de – The The – Mind Bomb" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 21 October 2022.

Original release and 1983 reissue credited to Matt Johnson. The 1993 re-release of Burning Blue Soul credits this album to the The.Announced as "forthcoming" in May 2007. Was eventually released in October 2017 in the Radio Cineola - The Trilogy box set. In early 1981 the The also contributed the composition "Untitled" to the Some Bizzare Album. In September of that year Johnson and Laws signed a recording contract with Some Bizzare Records and released the 7" single "Cold Spell Ahead". By this stage Matt Johnson had begun playing all the instruments himself so Laws left to pursue his studies, leaving Johnson as a solo artist using a group moniker. THE THE make powerful brooding music that grapples with the big questions. Mind Bomb is an eloquent rant against organised religion.”

This, bear in mind, was four years before Operation Desert Shield, and already Johnson saw the American century, America's global power and America's global ambitions, failing and falling in a Middle Eastern graveyard. Mind Bomb, which spread itself, lava-like, into a burning lake of foreboding about the West and Middle East, was released a year before the invasion of Kuwait. The second Gulf War, the Iraq War, was still fourteen years away. Matt Johnson was right. He saw it coming. And we laughed at him, the way one does at prophets. Because he'd really overdone the fire and brimstone this time. The album trails at the end. "Gravitate To Me", a good song, is rendered mediocre next to the excellent "August & September". I could have done without (the blahness of) "Beyond Love", or would much rather have preferred that Mr. Johnson left it off and put the excellent "Jealous Of Youth" on in its stead.

Completed album for Sony, who declined to release it. Part I of a planned "New York" trilogy; NakedSelf was Part II.