This Is the Day

Why 'This Is the Day' Still Feels Like Renewal

The meaning of This Is the Day The The starts with a hard truth: change does not always arrive in a dramatic flash. Sometimes it begins after a sleepless night, when someone looks around, faces their past, and decides that the next morning will not be wasted.

Released on Soul Mining in 1983, the song was written by Matt Johnson and became one of The The’s best-known tracks. It sits in a fascinating space between sadness and hope, which helps explain why it still resonates with listeners in the United States and beyond.

A Morning Song Built on a Long Night

The verses describe someone who has not really rested. Instead of sleep, they have been sitting with memory, time, and regret. The opening image, with the eyes turning red, suggests exhaustion, but also self-awareness. They cannot avoid their thoughts anymore.

That is the first key to the song’s message. Before the chorus sounds uplifting, the verses admit that the speaker has been stuck. Old letters, the calendar, and the sense that money cannot recover lost days all point to the same idea: time moves forward, whether people are ready or not.

Interpretation: the song is not just about one morning. It is about the exact instant when private pain becomes motivation. In that sense, the title line is less a prediction than a decision.

Watch the official This Is the Day music video

Private Struggle Behind a Lucky Image

One of the most moving parts of the lyric is the gap between public image and inner life. The song suggests that friends and family think this person is fortunate. On the outside, things may look fine.

But inside, they are held together by memory. The phrase left alone with your memories captures that hidden burden. The song understands a simple but powerful truth: other people often see success, while the individual feels the weight of what they lost or failed to become.

That makes the track emotionally rich. It is not a generic anthem about positive thinking. It is about hope that has earned its place by passing through disappointment.

The Chorus Turns Observation Into Belief

When the curtains open and sunlight hits, the song suddenly expands. The room gives way to the outside world, and the image of a clear blue sky feels almost cinematic. A plane crossing that sky gives the scene motion, distance, and possibility.

Then the chorus arrives with This is the day and the promise that life will change and things will fall into place. Importantly, the song never explains exactly what will change. That vagueness is part of its power. It lets listeners bring their own turning point into the track.

Interpretation: the chorus may be heard as self-persuasion. The speaker is trying to believe in renewal before they can fully prove it. That makes the repetition feel human, not naive.

Images of Time, Light, and Movement

The song’s symbols are simple, but they do a lot of work. Three stand out most:

• The calendar: a reminder that days disappear whether people act or not.
• Old letters: proof that memory can comfort and wound at the same time.
• Curtains and sky: the move from an enclosed mind to an open future.

Even the line about how much they have changed matters. The speaker is not the same person who lived those earlier days. That creates a bittersweet tension. Growth is real, but it comes with the pain of knowing some things cannot be recovered.

All the money in the world
couldn't buy back those days

That brief moment captures the song’s clearest statement: life’s real value is not material. It is time, feeling, and the chance to begin again before more of it slips away.

How the Sound Carries the Message

Part of what makes “This Is the Day” so enduring is that the music does not drown in the lyric’s sadness. Instead, the arrangement gives the words lift. The bright pop style, steady rhythm, and ringing melodic feel create forward movement rather than collapse.

That matters because the song is about surviving inner heaviness without denying it. The production gives listeners emotional contrast: the words look backward, while the music leans ahead.

Matt Johnson’s writing often blended intimacy with big, memorable hooks, and Soul Mining is widely recognized as a key early The The release. In this song, that approach turns introspection into something communal. A private crisis becomes a shared anthem.

Why It Still Connects Today

Listeners still return to this track because its situation is timeless. Many people know the feeling of reaching morning after a night of overthinking, replaying old choices, and wondering whether change is still possible.

The song’s answer is careful but encouraging. It does not say the past disappears. It says today can still matter. That is a more believable kind of hope.

For anyone searching for the meaning of This Is the Day The The, the simplest answer is this: it is a song about standing at the border between regret and renewal. It understands that transformation often begins quietly, in a room, with light through the curtains and the decision to move forward.

A Final Way to Hear It

There are at least two strong readings. Interpretation one: it is a motivational song about seizing the present. Interpretation two: it is about someone fragile trying to convince themselves they can begin again.

The beauty of the song is that both can be true at once. Its optimism feels lasting because it never ignores exhaustion, memory, or loss.

Disclaimer: This interpretation is based on the song’s lyrics, sound, and known release context. As with all art, listeners may hear different meanings in it.