Title: Flaunt the Imperfection
Author(s): China Crisis
Publisher: Virgin
Year: 1985
And thus do the immortal words of Reno 911’s Deputy Clementine Johnson open this missive on China Crisis’s sophisti-pop landmark, Flaunt the Imperfection. Why? Because Steely Dan’s Walter Becker was a fan of the group’s previous album, sought them out to work together, and ended up as the producer here. But also because Reno 911 is a contender for greatest comedy show of the 21st century and I like bringing it up.
China Crisis were an interesting band, sharing their slick-but-sincere little niche with contemporaries The Blue Nile, The Painted Word and my absolute favourites, Prefab Sprout. Too smooth, too tuneful, too virtuosic to fit in with the post-punk crew, too preppy and unfashionable to fully mix with the new romantic scene, doomed to be cast off at the earliest rumblings of the late 80s/early 90s rebirth of ugly music made by and for ugly men. But also not arch enough, ironic enough or closely-tied enough to the jazz world to achieve the status of the aforementioned Steely Dan. And, it might be said, simply too British to be yacht rock.
It’s nowhere near a hill I’d want to die on, but there’s a case to be made for China Crisis as a British Talking Heads, but with Walter Becker instead of Brian Eno as visionary producer, and a Bryan Ferry -indebted smoothness in place of RISD cred and CBGB nerviness. I could also note that singer Gary Daly sounds a bit like a lounge act version of Robert Smith, and from there I could imagine my way into a Tokyo skybar scenario, the cover group from Lost In Translation, but it’s these guys doing an adult contemporary rendition of Seventeen Seconds in its entirety.
That’s a bar I’d like to spend some time at.