Track Listing

1. Working With Fire And Steel
2. When The Piper Calls
3. Hanna Hanna
4. Animals In The Jungle
5. Here Comes A Raincloud
6. Wishful Thinking
7. Tragedy And Mystery
8. Papua
9. Gates Of Door To Door
10. Soulful Awakening

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10783 in Music
• Released on: 1984-05-14
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Workers Of Red
I've always been a huge China Crisis fan and have been with them since their seminal single, Christian, was released back in 1982.

As their career progressed they distanced themselves away from their early synth/new romantic routes and progressed into Steely Dan sound a likes, which is no bad thing in my book. In fact, as the years have passed I tended to play the later SD influenced albums such as Flaunt The Perfection and What Price Paradise. It was only fairly recently that I decided to play some of the early material, expecting it to sound fairly dated and flat. However, the material sounded fresh and vibrant and I discovered the beauty of Working With Fire & Steel all over again. This really is an excellent album and includes Wishful Thinking, the one track most casual listeners will have heard. Highlight for me though is another single, the title track, Working With Fire & Steel, which has one of the best bass lines known to man! Excellent stuff!

The other tracks on the album are testament to the musicianship of the band, there's plenty of flute and flugel horn, not instruments you'd usually associate with a pop band. There are plenty of up-tempo sing along numbers such as Hanna Hanna and Tragedy & Mystery (both single releases) and there are some quite lovely downtempo tracks such as When The Piper Calls and the gorgeous The Soul Awakening.

Some of the lyrics date the album, particularly the references to the Falklands War, but that only makes the album more special. It's of it's time and it's stood the test of time.

Fashion play your part!

One of the better releases from the Scouse Chinamen
China Crisis' second outing (in 1983) is a notably more mature and polished affair in contrast to their promising 1982 debut. Most 80's peeps such as myself will know and love the key track Wishful Thinking, a UK Top 10 hit. However, there's much more than to this album with its varied textures and fabulous pop doodlings, the standout tracks being the breakneck Animals In Jungles and the epic pop of When The Piper Calls, which amazingly was not released as a single.

The album also opens perfectly with the quirky pop of the title track, although the final four songs do tend to plod on a bit after the power-pop of the earlier tracks has got you in the mood for more of the same.

Classic 80's pop from an underrated band.
China Crisis first made the charts with 'Christian' from their debut album.This the follo-up includes the hit 'Wishful Thinking' and 'Tragedy & Mystery' which should have been. Perfectly crafted pop songs feature throughout from the sublime 'When the Piper calls' to the emotion of 'Here come a raincloud'. No duff tracks to talk of and a great introduction to a band sadly missed.