Stevo verbally agreed a singles deal with, and in May 1982 the label sent Johnson to New York to record the new version of the song, now retitled 'Uncertain Smile', with Soft Cell's producer at Media Sound studios. Contents.Background and initial New York recording sessions Following the release of Burning Blue Soul (1981) Johnson had started work on a follow-up, provisionally titled The Pornography of Despair.Īlthough Burning Blue Soul had been released on the record label, the The had also released a one-off single, 'Cold Spell Ahead', in 1981 on the label run by, and major record labels were expressing interest in Some Bizarre's acts following the worldwide success of.Johnson and Stevo decided that the best way to achieve commercial success was to record a new version of 'Cold Spell Ahead'. Soul Mining was reissued in June 2014 as a 30th anniversary deluxe version on vinyl, attracting retrospective reviews which universally praised the record, with several critics considering it to be both Johnson's defining work and one of the best albums of the 1980s. After a bidding war between major record labels which resulted in the group signing with, Johnson began recording the album in New York City, but the initial recording sessions were aborted after the album's first two singles and Johnson returned to London where he wrote and recorded the rest of the record.Soul Mining was released in the United Kingdom on 21 October 1983 on / and included versions of the singles 'Uncertain Smile', 'Perfect', and '.Īlthough the album received positive reviews, it initially sold modestly, reaching number 27 in the UK and charting in a number of other countries, but in 2019 the album was certified gold in the UK. 'Released: 2 September 1983Soul Mining is the debut album by British / band (the 1981 album was originally released by the band's frontman as a solo album, but later reissues credited it to The The).

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