"A Song from Under the Floorboards" b/w "Twenty Years Ago"
Released: January 1980
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" b/w "The Book"
Released: March 1980
"Sweetheart Contract" b/w "Feed the Enemy (Live)", "Twenty Years Ago (Live)", "Shot by Both Sides (Live)"
Released: July 1980

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Smash Hits	5/10

The Correct Use of Soap is the third album by British post-punk band Magazine, released by Virgin Records in 1980. It contains some of Magazine's best-known and most popular songs, including the singles "A Song from Under the Floorboards" and "Sweetheart Contract" and their cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". A different version of this album was released in Canada in 1980, by then distributor Polygram Records. This version was titled An Alternative Use of Soap.

Some of the songs marked a return of sorts to the punkier riffs and faster rhythms of Real Life, after their second album, Secondhand Daylight. This was their last album with original guitarist John McGeoch, who left the band after the release of the album and joined Siouxsie and the Banshees. McGeoch also played with Visage, formed by his Magazine bandmates Dave Formula and Barry Adamson. He was replaced by Robin Simon (ex-Ultravox, later with Ajantamusic) to the world tour, promoting the album. The record sleeve design for this album, as for most other Magazine albums and singles, was by Malcolm Garrett.

Two songs on the album make reference to elements of works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, namely "Philadelphia" (referring to Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment) and "A Song from Under the Floorboards" (whose opening sentence is a paraphrase of the opening sentence in Notes from Underground).

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Wikipedia