Christ – The Album
Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox album Christ – The Album is the fourth album by Crass, released in 1982. It was released as a boxed-set, double-vinyl LP package, including one disc of new studio material and another, entitled Well Forked.. But Not Dead, a live recording of the band's June 1981 gig at the 100 Club in London along with other studio tracks, demos and tape fragments. The box also included a book, A Series of Shock Slogans and Mindless Token Tantrums (featuring Penny Rimbaud's essay "The Last of the Hippies", telling the story of the suspicious death of his friend Wally Hope),<ref name="ShockSlogans">Template:Cite web</ref> and a large poster painted by Gee Vaucher. The album was well received and the band considered it their best.<ref name="Berger" />
In 2011, a two-disc remastered CD edition of the album was released as a part of the band's Crassical Collection reissue series. This edition featured extra content, with the studio album (and the bonus tracks) featured on the first disc and the live album featured on the second disc. On 2 October 2020, the Crassical Collection edition was reissued, with the bonus tracks added to the second disc.
Background and release
Unlike previous Crass albums, Christ took almost a year to record, produce and mix, during which time the Falklands War had taken place.<ref name="EP">Template:Cite web</ref> This caused Crass to fundamentally question their approach to making records. As a group whose very reason for existing was to comment on political issues, they felt that they had been overtaken and made to appear redundant by real-world events.<ref name="Berger">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Quietus">Template:Cite web</ref>
For subsequent releases, including the singles "How Does It Feel to Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead", "Sheep Farming in the Falklands" and the album Yes Sir, I Will, the band stripped their sound "back to basics", issuing the singles as "tactical responses" to political situations.<ref name="Berger" />
Rereleases of the album bear the line "With love to Steve Herman who died on the 4th of February 1989" on the back cover. Herman was Crass' guitar player during their first few months.
Reception
Template:Music ratings Christ – The Album is considered by former members of Crass to be among their best recordings.<ref name="Berger"/> In a retrospective article written for the album, Harry Sword of The Quietus refers to it as "the most caustic realization of their vision" and called it "a seething howl that remains most intensely relevant to politics and vibrantly forward thinking in terms of music."<ref name="TQ">Template:Cite web</ref> Trouser Press referred to it as "quintessential" for it "proves the band's courage and conviction."<ref name="TP">Template:Cite web</ref>
Reviewing the album in NME, Paul Du Noyer wrote: "There's always something exciting about such raw passion; anger which hits you so hard that every idea in your head gets shook up, violently."<ref name="Berger" />
Track listing
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Personnel
- Joy De Vivre - vocals
- Steve Ignorant - vocals
- Peeve Libido (Eve Libertine) - vocals
- Phil Free - synthesizer, guitar
- $ri Hari Nana B.A. (N.A.Palmer) - rhythm sitar
- Sybil Right (Pete Wright) - bass guitar
- Paul Ellis - strings
- Elvis Rimbaud (Penny Rimbaud) - drums, radio
- Steve Herman - guitar (on the two demos on 'Well Forked')
- Jean Paul Marat - liner notes