The Plateau Phase was the first album released by post-punk band Crispy Ambulance. It was released in 1982 and was a departure to the sound of the earlier singles which was considered to be closer to the sound of post-punk contemporaries Joy Division. It reached number 21 on the UK Indie Charts by the months of May and April 1982.It received harsh criticism at the time, a typical example being this review by Mat Snow for NME:Retrospective criticism was more positive, e.g. Ned Raggett, AllMusic: