I was looking on Discogs for a copy of China Crisis’ greatest hits album ‘Collection’ which I have on CD and although there are some reasonably priced records out there, I baulk at paying more for postage than I do for the actual LP. An alternative was needed so I headed for the original albums.
I asked Google what was considered the best China Crisis album and after visiting a few sites and reading reviews the consensus is that ‘Flaunt The Imperfection’ is probably the album to go for, and here it is in all its near-mint glory! £7 from eBay, an utter bargain, a quick clean and it is playing beautifully.
This is the band's third album and was originally released in 1985. It includes the singles ‘You Did Cut Me’ and ‘The Highest High’ but it is probably best known for the other two singles released from it that year, ‘Black Man Ray’ and ‘King In A Catholic Style’ which I remember were massive at the time.
The good thing about buying original albums instead of greatest hits is that you get a load of tracks that you may have missed when a record was released, in the case of this LP there are a number of excellent songs like ‘Wall Of God’, ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’ and ‘Blue Sea’ which I’m just discovering almost 40 years after they were released.
I’m a sucker for 80s synth-pop albums and this is a really good one. It made the top 10 in the UK album charts and the two big singles hit the top 20 upon release, they should have been bigger but there was a lot of competition in their market at the time.
I’ve been lucky enough to see them live a few times, always excellent, always funny. Hopefully, I’ll catch them again this year at the Rewind North festival in Cheshire.
If you fancy a copy there are plenty on eBay and Discogs with prices that reflect their condition.
Tracks To Try: ‘The Highest High’, ‘You Did Cut Me’, ‘Black Man Ray’, ‘Wall Of God’, ‘King In A Catholic Style’, ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’, ‘Blue Sea’.
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