Working with Fire and Steel – Possible Pop Songs Volume Two is the second studio album by the English new wave and synth-pop band China Crisis, released on 31 October 1983 by Virgin Records.

[3] After releasing their debut studio album Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain in late 1982, China Crisis made their first major tour supporting Simple Minds.

[6] The arrival of oboe and saxophone player Steve Levy and drummer Kevin Wilkinson into the band's line-up, along with the introduction of more session musicians, gave the album a markedly less synthetic sound than its predecessor.

While the band made use of the then latest technology such as the emulator, introduced to them by producer Mike Howlett,[4] they notably incorporated brass, woodwind and string instruments to their sound.

[7] During the album sessions the band also recorded the song "It's Never Too Late", but it was dropped due to its similarity to "Wishful Thinking" and was later released on a limited edition 12" single of "Black Man Ray".

[9] The title track "Working with Fire and Steel" was released as a single a few weeks before the album in October 1983 with two non-album instrumentals, "Dockland" and "Forever I and I", on the B-side, reaching No.

"Sometimes this lot are annoyingly hazy, moody, abstract", Dave Rimmer wrote, "At others they're capable of sound tunes, bright rhythms and sterling stuff.

Mike Howlett’s production, plus a new drummer and a permanent bassist, help the group attain a bit more sonic snap; the lyrics are less tortured, if just as thoughtfully and melancholically personal.