| Crises | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Mike Oldfield | ||||
| Released | 27 May 1983 | |||
| Recorded | Denham November 1982 – April 1983 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock | |||
| Length | 37:39 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Mike Oldfield, Simon Phillips | |||
| Mike Oldfield chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Crises | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
Crises is the eighth record album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1983. Oldfield's well known hit "Moonlight Shadow" appears on the album.
Contents |
The title track of the album is a twenty minute long piece, featuring a small amount of vocals, sung by Oldfield. The beginning and end of the track are driven by a synthesised lead passage, stylistically similar to the opening theme to Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
The album also features the massive hit "Moonlight Shadow", sung by Maggie Reilly, who also sang and co-wrote "Foreign Affair". "In High Places" has lyrics by Mike Oldfield and Jon Anderson. "Shadow on the Wall" has vocals by Roger Chapman. The album includes "Taurus 3", a short fast-paced guitar piece unlike the previous two long multi-themed "Taurus" tracks featured on QE2 and Five Miles Out respectively.
The Crises Tour 1983 was in promotion of the album.
The album was recorded between November 1982 and April 1983 using an Ampex ATR 124 tape recorder, a Neve 8108 with Necam console, and Westlake Monitors, in Denham, England. Oldfield used a Gibson SG Junior for overdriven guitar sounds and a Fender Stratocaster for clean sounds. Tama Drums were Simon Phillips' brand of choice for drums on the album; Phillips also did some production work. Oldfield makes extensive use of Oberheim and Fairlight keyboards.
Asked how he recruited Chapman and Anderson in an interview, Oldfield answered "we just hang out in the same bar". The "Moonlight Shadow" single from this album includes the rare track "Rite of Man". The North American version of the album has a different running order and includes the single "Mistake".
In 2000 along with Oldfield's other Virgin Records albums it was reissued in HDCD format, and it is due to be reissued again by Mercury Records in the 2010s.
The album's cover art was by Terry Ilott.[2] Oldfield makes reference to the artwork with the line, "the watcher and the tower, waiting hour, by hour" (printed in the back cover of the LP, and sung by Mike Oldfield on the title track). In the interview mentioned before, Oldfield stated that "he is the man in the corner and the tower is his music".
It spent 19 weeks on Norway's album chart, peaking at #1 for two weeks, and is Oldfield's best selling album there. The album also peaked at #6 in the UK Album Chart.
| Chart (1983) |
Position |
|---|---|
| UK Album Chart | 6 |
| Norwegian Album Chart | 1 |
A number of songs from Crises have been covered by numerous acts, with "Moonlight Shadow" being the most popular. Dance act Groove Coverage took their cover of "Moonlight Shadow" to number 3 in the German charts. A 2009 cover version of "Foreign Affair" by Belgian dance band Sylver spent 8 weeks in the top 10 of the Belgian single charts, peaking at #3.[3]
American rapper Kanye West samples Oldfield's song "In High Places". West incorporated the song's chorus into his song "Dark Fantasy" from his 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.