the_post() falls outside of loop but is still in the loop

Hi,

My output HTML is being strange and <h1> and <p> tags are blank underneath my actual data

$postlist = new WP_Query( $args );
			if ( $postlist->have_posts() ) :
				while ( $postlist->have_posts() ) : $postlist->the_post();
					the_post_thumbnail();
					echo '<h1>'.the_title().'</h1>';
					echo '<p>'.the_excerpt().'</p>';
					echo '<hr>';
				endwhile;
				//twentysixteen_paging_nav();
			else :
				get_template_part( 'content', 'none' );
			endif;

this is happening:
New post<h1></h1>