| What Price Paradise | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | China Crisis |
| Cover: | China Crisis - What Price Paradise-cover.jpg |
| Released: | [1] |
| Recorded: | Summer 1986 |
| Studio: | The Manor Studio, Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire and Westside Studios, London |
| Genre: | New wave |
| Length: | 45:36 |
| Label: | Virgin |
| Producer: | Clive Langer, Alan Winstanley |
| Prev Title: | Flaunt the Imperfection |
| Prev Year: | 1985 |
| Next Title: | Diary of a Hollow Horse |
| Next Year: | 1989 |
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.[2]
All tracks written by Gary Daly, Gary "Gazza" Johnson, Eddie Lundon, Brian McNeill and Kevin Wilkinson, except where stated.
with:
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."[3]