Soul Mining by The The

Soul Mining was Matt Johnson's second album (his first, Burning Blue Soul, was released in 1981 as Matt Johnson, though reissues have tended to use The The). It was released in 1983 and included the UK hit singles "Uncertain Smile" which had reached No. 68 in December 1982 and "Perfect" which made No. 71 in September 1983 with David Johanson of the New York Dolls playing harmonica. The album version of "Uncertain Smile" featured the piano playing of Jools Holland. Jools revealed in his 2007 biography it is in fact two separate solos joined together. The original single used flute and sax solos played by Crispin Cioe of the Uptown Horns. The cover artwork is by Andy Johnson, Matt Johnson's brother, aka Andy Dog. There are four different versions of the album in existence. Johnson originally intended the album to finish with "Giant", but EPIC insisted that 7 songs were too few and a re-recorded version of "Perfect" was added to the US version, much to Johnson's annoyance. In the USA the vinyl, CD and cassette versions contained "Perfect". The cassette version also included the five extra tracks listed below. There was also a limited edition of the original Album which included a 12inch with an extended remix of Perfect b/sided with Fruit of the Heart & Soup of mixed emotions (XPR1250). For the 20th anniversary of Soul Mining, the album was digitally remastered without "Perfect", as Johnson had originally intended. The UK cassette album adds five additional bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere: "Three Orange Kisses from Kazan" "The Nature of Virtue" "Mental Healing Process" "Waitin' for the Upturn" "Fruit of the Heart" ℗ 2001 Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.