China Crisis - Flaunt The Imperfection
Can you imagine what it would be like to have a personal musical hero send you a message and go on to produce your album? That's what happened to China Crisis. Core founders of the band Gary Daly and Eddie London cited the music of Steely Dan as a huge influence, alongside David Bowie and others. So when Walter Becker reached out and asked to meet the band it would have been exciting times.
Becker produced their third and undoubtedly best album, Flaunt The Imperfections. It was released in 1985 and did well in the UK charts reaching number nine, though less so in the US peaking there at 171 on the Billboard 200. Worldwide sales of just over 100k though seem lower than the album deserves.
The album has top songs like “Black Man Ray”, and “King In A Catholic Style” which both did well as top 20 UK singles hits. They and the rest of the album display great instrumentation and songwriting from the band. They manage to incorporate their synth-pop music comfortably alongside intricate woodwinds and strings, some jazz and acoustic guitar plus keyboards to create an album of great music. Becker certainly got the production right on this one and the band were so delighted they added him as a band member on the sleeve notes.