The The - The Pornography Of Despair (1982)

'The Pornography Of Despair' was originally intended to be the debut album from Matt Johnson's band The The in 1982, but was scrapped in favour of the more commercially-friendly 'Soul Mining', which was issued the following year. As it turned out this might have been a good decision, as 'Soul Mining' was a commercial and critical success, putting Johnson on the indie map, and paving the way for many more successful releases over the next 30-plus years. Rather than scrap all the recordings, however, Johnson used them for b-sides and bonus tracks on the cassette issue of 'Soul Mining', and so using these and other songs which surfaced later, we are able to piece together an approximation of what the album could have sounded like. There's no record of the exact track listing for the original, but this is as close as we'll get until Johnson gets around to releasing it, which is unlikely. 'Absolute Liberation' did come out on the 1983 ‘This Is The Day’ EP, alongside 'Mental Healing Process' and 'Leap Into The Wind', and 'Three Orange Kisses From Kazan' and 'Waitin' For The Upturn' had already appeared on the 1982 'Uncertain Smile' single. 'That Sinking Feeling' did end up on 'Soul Mining', although this version is more lo-fi and much longer, and 'Cold Spell Ahead' is actually an early version of 'Uncertain Smile'. 'Soup Of Mixed Emotion' was on a limited edition 12" single with initial copies of 'Soul Mining', and 'Fruit Of The Heart' eventually surfaced on the b-side of the 'Heartland' 12", but unless you have the 'Early Rarities' bootleg, this is the first time that you'll have a chance to hear the rest of these songs, and be able to make up your own mind whether this album would have been as successful as 'Soul Mining' in launching Johnson's career.  

Track listing

01 The Nature Of Virtue
02 Leap Into The Wind
03 Dumb As Death’s Head
04 Mental Healing Process (For A Mixed Up Kid)
05 Absolute Liberation
06 Uncertain Smile
07 Perfect
08 Three Orange Kisses From Kazan
09 Waitin' For The Upturn
10 Fruit Of The Heart
11 Soup Of Mixed Emotion
12 Untitled
13 The Sinking Feeling

Suggested by 'The Greatest Albums You'll Never Hear' by Bruno MacDonald