Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain is the debut studio album by English new wave and synth-pop band China Crisis, released on 12 November 1982 by Virgin Records.

[4] Upon its release in 1982, Neil Tennant in Smash Hits gave the album a positive review: "They write pretty melodies (and counter-melodies), intelligent but unobtrusive words, and give their songs delicate, dry arrangements, pulsating with muted rhythms and synthesizer and guitar lines.

"[6] In a retrospective AllMusic review Stephen Schnee wrote that the duo of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon "made their fascinating debut, Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain, on a low budget, and their magic was already in place, especially on the Steely Dan-ish "No More Blue Horizons," the upbeat groove of "Some People I Know to Lead Fantastic Lives" and "You Never See It", the gorgeous "Christian," and their early hit "African and White."

Their quirkiness doesn't quite translate on a few tracks ("Temptation's Big Blue Eyes" and "Are We a Worker"), but the charm of this album will win you over if you like smart, yet slightly eccentric, pop songs.

"[5] In a Trouser Press review of the album Jim Green wrote: "The rhythms — R&B, funk, reggae, Afro-gypsy, bossa nova — are so gently, modestly, melodiously proffered that it goes down too smoothly.