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What Price Paradise

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What Price Paradise
Studio album by
China Crisis
Released24 November 1986 (1986-11-24)[1]
RecordedSummer 1986
StudioThe Manor Studio, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire and Westside Studios, London
GenreNew wave
Length45:36
LabelVirgin
ProducerClive Langer, Alan Winstanley
China Crisis chronology
Flaunt the Imperfection
(1985) 		What Price Paradise
(1986) 		Diary of a Hollow Horse
(1989)
Singles from What Price Paradise
  1. "Arizona Sky"
    Released: 13 October 1986[2]
  2. "Best Kept Secret"
    Released: 12 January 1987[3]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[4]

What Price Paradise is the fourth studio album by English new wave group China Crisis. Although it only saw modest success in the band's homeland and Australia (not reaching the top 40 in either country), the album's lead-off single, "Arizona Sky" became a breakthrough hit in North America, cracking the top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary charts (at number 37). Follow-up single "Best Kept Secret" was slightly more successful in the U.K. than its predecessor, reaching number 36 on the British charts.

The album was released on CD, LP and Cassette in 1986. The CD version featured one bonus track: "Trading in Gold", originally released on the B-side of the "Arizona Sky" single.

A three CD deluxe edition of the album was released in January 2022. As well as a remaster of the original album, it also featured B-sides, previously unheard four-track demos and a 1987 live performance at the Liverpool Empire.[5]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks written by Gary Daly, Gary "Gazza" Johnson, Eddie Lundon, Brian McNeill and Kevin Wilkinson, except where stated.

  1. "It's Everything" – 5:09
  2. "Arizona Sky" – 5:24
  3. "Safe as Houses" – 4:26
  4. "Worlds Apart" (Daly, Johnson, Lundon, McNeill, Wilkinson, Kevin Kelly) – 3:35
  5. "Hampton Beach" – 4:47
  6. "The Understudy" – 5:45
  7. "Best Kept Secret" – 4:08
  8. "We Do the Same" – 4:21
  9. "June Bride" – 3:50
  10. "A Day's Work for the Dayo's Done" – 4:17
  11. "Trading in Gold" – 4:27 (Only appears on the CD version)

Personnel

[edit]
China Crisis

with:

  • Stuart Nisbet - guitar
  • Gary Barnacle - saxophone, flute
  • Luke Tunney - trumpet, flugelhorn
  • Pete Thoms - trombone
  • Martin Ditcham - percussion
  • Davie Dover, John Lewis - backing vocals
  • David Bedford - string arrangements, conductor

Critical reception

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Switching to producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, Trouser Press found that "The sound has more edge to it, yet is somehow less delicate, less distinctive than on previous albums. In fact, the vocals (lead and backing) on one track are so different that the group is nearly unrecognizable. Still, it pretty much is China Crisis; if the songs occasionally seem more conventionally written, they’re still attractive, even almost (gulp) commercial."[6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "News Digest" (PDF). Record Mirror. 22 November 1986. p. 18. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  2. ^ "News Digest" (PDF). Record Mirror. 11 October 1986. p. 52. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
  3. ^ "News Digest". Record Mirror. 10 January 1987. p. 6. Retrieved 16 August 2022 – via Flickr.
  4. ^ Dan LeRoy. "What Price Paradise - China Crisis | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  5. ^ "China Crisis / What Price Paradise reissue – SuperDeluxeEdition".
  6. ^ "China Crisis". Trouser Press.
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