Crisis of Faith: a ten-track album with several different entry points
The two-part opener, the credited guest and the actual closing songs help map the 2022 record.
Crisis of Faith contains ten tracks, but its opening title already warns against treating the count as ten identical units. Forgiveness I + II occupies one entry despite naming two parts. It is followed by Reckless Paradise and I Beg to Differ (This Will Get Better). That opening offers three recognisable points of access without requiring the whole album to be approached as another version of an earlier favourite.
For a first encounter, those distinctions are more helpful than an immediate verdict on whether Billy Talent have changed too much or not enough. A multi-part piece raises a structural question; a familiar single brings a release history; a guest credit raises a question about collaboration. These are different reasons to open a track, and this album accommodates all three within a compact ten-song programme.
The collaboration is inside the album, not at its edge
End of Me explicitly credits Rivers Cuomo and stands eighth, between Hanging Out With All the Wrong People and One Less Problem. It is not the final track, despite its title, and it is not presented as a bonus outside the standard sequence. Someone arriving through the guest's name therefore enters late in the album but still has two songs ahead. That position makes it a useful doorway without turning it into a substitute for the record.
The final pairing is One Less Problem followed by For You. Describing End of Me as the album's conclusion would erase both. Similarly, identifying Forgiveness I + II as two separate tracks would change the count while leaving the music unchanged. These are small catalogue details, yet they matter when comparing a playlist, a digital album and a physical tracklist: apparently different totals or endpoints can arise from how the material is described.
A deluxe box does not automatically mean more songs
The official deluxe vinyl box listing retains the ten-track sequence. Its additional appeal lies in the described package, including art prints and a soft-cover book, rather than an advertised longer tracklist. A collector wanting extra recordings should therefore not infer them from the word deluxe alone. Conversely, someone interested only in the album need not regard the ordinary ten-track sequence as an incomplete version.
The middle also deserves a place in this map: The Wolf and Reactor precede Judged, which in turn leads into Hanging Out With All the Wrong People. Taken together with the opening trio and final pairing, these titles establish the complete route around the prominent collaboration. The aim is not to designate hidden masterpieces before hearing them. It is to make the album navigable on its own terms, with enough specificity that a familiar song becomes an entrance rather than the entire destination.
