China Crisis - Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms / Working With Fire and Steel* / Flaunt The Imperfection - Caroline 2xCD (*3CD)
Somewhat surprisingly, given the band's continued albeit limited popularity and legacy, these new reissues of their first three albums are considerably overdue. With a track record of just five Top 40 hits, several sometimes superior near-misses and a penchant for sweeping melodies and otherwordly instrumentation, it'd be a tough customer who doesn't like at least a handful of China Crisis songs.
Debut album Difficult Shapes showcased Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon's softly softy synthpop to near perfection. Revered by John Peel (there's a 1982 session included as a bonus) and nonchalently reviewed by a few critics at the time, China Crisis' ouevre wasn't unlike that of arty hit-makers Japan but arguably less rigid in its execution and poppier. Listen to Feel To Be Driven Away and Temptation's Big Blue Eyes and you'll hear similarities. Hit single Christian echoed Lanois and Eno's Apollo soundtrack work and opener Seven Sports For All was, according to the songwriters, influenced by A Certain Ratio's take on Shack Up.
Thus DSAPR arguably sounds like a lot of other people's music but still ends up being China Crisis's signature recording. There isn't a dud on it, plus you've got African and White and the should-have-been-a-single Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives in the armoury. Extras include the really odd but engaging non-album single Scream Down At Me and its brutal b-side Cucumber Garden, the extended version of the utterly lovely No More Blue Horizons, the Cluster-esque flip Watching Over Burning Fields and demos. Sadly, no space for the studio mix of Be Suspicious. 8/10
Follow-up album Working With Fire and Steel marked something of a transition for the band. Out went the melancholia and in came a rather more polished but no less forgiving string of memorable melodies and hit songs. It was a very 'Liverpool' album, at a time when the city that was awash with great songwriting talent. OMD, Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen and, er, Hambi and the Dance. The latter imploded after just one album and bassist Gazza joined China Crisis along with drummer Kevin Wilkinson from the local scene.
Wishful Thinking is as 'eighties' as you can get and yet still sounds contemporary to this day, a wide-eyed anthem boyishly sung by Eddie and arranged with future live performances in mind. Other singles were less successful - Hanna Hanna and the album's title-track were perhaps the weakest tracks to foist upon a public waiting for another Christian, while Tragedy and Mystery surprisingly failed to gain much in the way of airplay.
Extras include various b-sides, sessions and live tracks plus a couple of annoying errors.
Quite why Caroline saw fit to repeat Some People from the previous album I don't know, plus the LP version of Wishful Thinking is repeated again on the second disc. The 7" of This Occupation might have made more sense as it's quite different from the somewhat clumsy 12".
The more reflective Here Come a Raincloud and Soul Awakening saw China Crisis enter the realms of grown-up balladry without sounding irksome. The latter would have made a fine single but by this time, the band were cutting their teeth with a new producer and extra band member. 8/10
For 1985's Flaunt The Imperfection, the late Walter Becker of Steely Dan stripped the band of its reliance on synths and brought in glossy technology and guitar riffs, albeit an MOR interpolation - it was a good effort. So while not exactly a rock band, China Crisis evolved into a drivetime entity that retained a modicum of its earlier charms but at the expense of those trademark melodies. Sure, lead single Black Man Ray and its successor King in a Catholic Style borrow heavily from the Dan catalogue in varying measures but, excepting Bigger The Punch and bonus b-side It's Never Too Late, a lot of Flaunt is just plain bland but played very well.
Head to the bonus disc however and the likes of 96.8 and the demo of Wall Of God demonstrate that China Crisis still had a foothold musically. 7/10
Debut album Difficult Shapes showcased Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon's softly softy synthpop to near perfection. Revered by John Peel (there's a 1982 session included as a bonus) and nonchalently reviewed by a few critics at the time, China Crisis' ouevre wasn't unlike that of arty hit-makers Japan but arguably less rigid in its execution and poppier. Listen to Feel To Be Driven Away and Temptation's Big Blue Eyes and you'll hear similarities. Hit single Christian echoed Lanois and Eno's Apollo soundtrack work and opener Seven Sports For All was, according to the songwriters, influenced by A Certain Ratio's take on Shack Up.
Thus DSAPR arguably sounds like a lot of other people's music but still ends up being China Crisis's signature recording. There isn't a dud on it, plus you've got African and White and the should-have-been-a-single Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives in the armoury. Extras include the really odd but engaging non-album single Scream Down At Me and its brutal b-side Cucumber Garden, the extended version of the utterly lovely No More Blue Horizons, the Cluster-esque flip Watching Over Burning Fields and demos. Sadly, no space for the studio mix of Be Suspicious. 8/10
Wishful Thinking is as 'eighties' as you can get and yet still sounds contemporary to this day, a wide-eyed anthem boyishly sung by Eddie and arranged with future live performances in mind. Other singles were less successful - Hanna Hanna and the album's title-track were perhaps the weakest tracks to foist upon a public waiting for another Christian, while Tragedy and Mystery surprisingly failed to gain much in the way of airplay.
Extras include various b-sides, sessions and live tracks plus a couple of annoying errors.
Quite why Caroline saw fit to repeat Some People from the previous album I don't know, plus the LP version of Wishful Thinking is repeated again on the second disc. The 7" of This Occupation might have made more sense as it's quite different from the somewhat clumsy 12".
The more reflective Here Come a Raincloud and Soul Awakening saw China Crisis enter the realms of grown-up balladry without sounding irksome. The latter would have made a fine single but by this time, the band were cutting their teeth with a new producer and extra band member. 8/10
Head to the bonus disc however and the likes of 96.8 and the demo of Wall Of God demonstrate that China Crisis still had a foothold musically. 7/10