Crises

For other uses, see Crises (disambiguation).

Crises
Studio album by Mike Oldfield
Released	27 May 1983 (1983-05-27)
Recorded	Denham November 1982 – April 1983
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	37:39
Label	Virgin
Producer	Mike Oldfield, Simon Phillips
Mike Oldfield chronology
Five Miles Out (1982) Crises (1983) Discovery (1984)
Singles from Crises
"Mistake" Released: 20 August 1982 "Moonlight Shadow" Released: 6 May 1983 "Shadow on the Wall" Released: September 1983 "In High Places" Released: 7 September 1987

Professional ratings
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.

Album analysis

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.

Recording details

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".

Re-release

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.

Artwork

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".

Charts

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

Track listing

UK version

Side one

1. "Crises" (Mike Oldfield) – 20:40

Side two

1. "Moonlight Shadow" (Oldfield) – 3:34 (vocals by Maggie Reilly)
2. "In High Places" (Oldfield, Jon Anderson) – 3:33 (vocals by Jon Anderson)
3. "Foreign Affair" (Oldfield, Maggie Reilly) – 3:53 (vocals by Maggie Reilly)
4. "Taurus 3" (Oldfield) – 2:25 (instrumental)
5. "Shadow on the Wall" (Oldfield) – 3:09 (vocals by Roger Chapman)

North American version

Side one

1. "Mistake" (lead vocals by Maggie Reilly)
2. "In High Places"
3. "Foreign Affair"
4. "Taurus 3"
5. "Shadow on the Wall"
6. "Moonlight Shadow"

Side two

1. "Crises"

Personnel

• Mike Oldfield – guitars on all tracks except "Foreign Affair" (including Ovation Adamus electroacoustic guitar, Ramirez Spanish guitar & Manson acoustic guitar on "Taurus 3"); Fairlight CMI on all tracks except "Taurus 3"; Roland string synthesizer (probably the RS-202) on "Crises", "In High Place", "Foreign Affair" & "Shadow on the Wall", Oberheim OB-Xa synthesizer on "Crises" & "In High Places"; Farfisa organ & piano & Prophet 5 synthesizer on "Crises"; bass guitar on "Crises" & "Shadow on the Wall"; acoustic bass guitar on "Taurus 3"; harp on "Crises"; mandolin on "Crises" & "Taurus 3"; banjo on "Taurus 3" & "Shadow on the Wall"; Simmons electronic drums on "Crises"; bells & tambourine & shaker on "Taurus 3"; Oberheim DMX drum machine & Oberheim DSX digital polyphonic sequencer & Quantec Room Simulator reverb unit on "Crises"; vocals on "Crises".

Additional personnel

• Maggie Reilly – vocals on "Moonlight Shadow" & "Foreign Affair"
• Jon Anderson – vocals on "In High Places"
• Roger Chapman – vocals on "Shadow on the Wall"
• Simon Phillips – acoustic Tama drums, co-production, special effects, shaker on "Foreign Affair" & "Taurus 3", finger-snaps & bells & tambourine & boots on "Taurus 3"
• Ant (Anthony Glynne) – guitars on "Crises" & "Shadow on the Wall"
• Rick Fenn – guitar on "Crises"
• Phil Spalding – bass guitar on "Crises" & "Moonlight Shadow"
• Pierre Moerlen - vibraphone on "In High Places"

Cover versions

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.

References

1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r573549
2. ^ "Terry Ilot Interview" (in Spanish). Mundo Mike Oldfield. http://www.mundomikeoldfield.com/terryilottentrevista.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-27. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Sylver - "Foreign Affair"". Ultratop. http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Sylver&titel=Foreign+Affair&cat=s. Retrieved 2010-04-13. 

External links

• Mike Oldfield Discography - Crises at Tubular.net
• Terry Ilott's web site (cover art)