PledgeMusic | UK | CD | 2015
China Crisis: Autumn In The Neighbourhood UK CD [2015]
- Smile [What Kind Of Love Is This]
- Down Here On Earth
- Autumn In The Neighbourhood
- Because My Heart
- Bernard
- Joy + The Spark
- Being In Love
- Fool
- My Sweet Delight
- Tell tale Signs
- Wonderful New World
When we last checked, China Crisis had begun a Pledge Music campaign for their first album since 1994 back in 2013. Between Moogfest ticket$ for the Spring of 2014, and a longer than two week vacation encompassing California [and all three Amoeba stores] later that year, and another planned two week vacation in 2015, I was in squirrel-like saving mode. I cut my music purchases down severely in that period to store up funds. I imagined, that once the new album was out, China Crisis would sell the rights to it to small boutique labels far and sundry. After all, their excellent 1995 live album “Acoustically Yours” can be bought in a brain-melting array of different titles and packages the world over. That’s what I thought, any way.
2014 came and went with no China Crisis album delivered yet, so I could have pledged… had I not been saving for another, atypically long vacation in the Fall of 2015! I had pledged for the CD as a birthday gift to a friend in December of 2013 and I had to give her a mea culpa since the pledge delivery target was missed by the band that entire year. I was busy saving through 2015 for that vacation when all of a sudden in the Summer of 2015, China Crisis shipped the CD out to the pledgers! And then that was it. The campaign was closed, and I was unable to get a CD from Pledge Music after that time. Not to worry, I thought. They have a master now, so they’ll probably license it to those aforementioned, small, boutique labels. Except that never happened. If one didn’t pledge during the 18 month period between the start of the campaign and the delivery, one was simply out of luck.
It was not even possible to buy the album at the band’s own merch tables! A friend of mine who attended the Retro Futura tour got to see China Crisis sing five songs and hand out at the merch table with fans, but there was not a single copy of “Autumn In the Neighbourhood” to be found for sale. Eventually, scant copies filtered onto the gray market at the $40-$50 price point. Ouch! I put it on my Discogs want list and hoped that when one surfaced that I could scare up the funds in time. But that never happened. I stewed in my juices for two years until a chance came my way on the New Wave Outpost message board.
Of course, that’s the kind of place where I would frequent, but in a thread about the new China Crisis DLX RMs, I managed to grouse about the extreme scarcity of this album. One fellow who had multiple copies came to my aid, and a week later it’s in my hands. And wouldn’t you know it? we’re out of time to move further than the “convoluted backstory” portion of the review today. Join us tomorrow for a closer look at this album.
Next: …Smile
![Chris Cross: 1952-2024 [part 2]](https://postpunkmonk.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/ultravox-cross.jpg?w=200&h=200&crop=1)
Post-Punk Monk 
Everything about the Pledge experience for Autumn In The Neighborhood was wrong. Meeting deadlines, the release, at least one if not more mini tours during the campaign, delays in mastering – and then the head scratching reality that this was not to be a platform to launch the album and a comeback, but a real one off release with no desire to build on momentum.
Having said all that, I am primed for installment 2 Monk…
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Brilliant album – never understood why the band didn’t license this to a label like Cherry Red for a wider release. This album is also missing a song that was made available as a free download during the campaign – “Everyone You Know” – which is absolutely brilliant.
I ended up sourcing mine from the secondary market as a package deal with the gig only self-released Fine And Also Rare China. This 10-track rarities collection includes many songs missing from the upcoming deluxe editions.
https://www.discogs.com/China-Crisis-Fine-and-also-Rare-China/release/6990071
Quick question – is it better to order the deluxe editions direct from Pledge or from Amazon?
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Rob C – You and me both! I was flabbergasted that this edition of no more than 1500 [there were nearly a thousand pledgers so I’ll allow for some multiple pledges here] for an album this wonderful. I did get the downloads from the feed since I pledges as a gift. Mental note to self: listen to them now! I have “Fine + Rare China” on my want list but it’s called “rare” for a reason.
“Flaunt” will cost £9.64 + shipping on Pledge. £11.91 on Amazon with free delivery if over £20 is spent. It may be a wash. Amazon dealers may carry this down the road at far less that £11.91. I am probably buying these from Amazon dealers for <$10-$15 much later on. I have no money to buy anything right now. Seriously! I am lucky I nabbed this CD last week!
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Monk was this chap selling any further copies? I’ve been after one for a while.
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SimonH – He only had one extra, but right now it’s on Discogs, sealed, out of the UK for the decent price of £30 here:
https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/515590421?ev=bp_det
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Thank you!
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SimonH – We aim to please! Glad to see you nabbed it. Spoiler alert: it’s worth the £30!!
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I did wonder whether you were about to say it’s not much cop…but doubted that:)
Look forward to hearing it at the weekend.
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