The 1986 Listening Post - Culture Club - From Luxury to Heartache

Culture Club - From Luxury to Heartache

#110/1275

March 30 1986

Culture Club

From Luxury to Heartache

Genre: “Whatever happened to…?”

2.25 out of 5

Highlights:

I Pray

Lowlights:

Gusto Blusto

If you ever wondered what it sounded like to take all the pieces of a band and their oeuvre and then let aliens try to reassemble it, in the dark, without any real understanding of music, and that band was Culture Club, this is what it would sound like. 

I mean, you don’t really know that it’s CC until someone says, “Why are you listening to the worst Culture Club album?” and then you key in and you hear George O’Dowd. But the cheekiness is gone. 

They had an album called Colour By Numbers. They should have named this one Recorded By Numbers. 

Too bad. If they had their act together songs like “I Pray” might’ve been something. And “Come Clean” has a certain “Thank God It’s Christmas” by Queen quality. Not great but familiar. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E4wG3sG7pU&list=PLBJ7ztNazTVCON7RKI379r79fSvUcpiFE

The 1984 Listening Post - Culture Club - Waking Up with the House on Fire

Culture Club - Waking Up with the House on Fire


#278
Culture Club
Waking Up with the House on Fire
2.75 out of 5

Highlights:
Dangerous Man
The War Song

Everything I don’t like about Michael Jackson is what I actually like during this record.
I actually think CC is more musically honest and interesting than MJ and his radio calculations had ever been.
That said, it’s all the samey sameness drip of blue eyed treacle that gets old uber fast.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/waking-up-with-the-house-on-fire/724236053

The 1983 Listening Post - Culture Club - Colour By Numbers

Culture Club - Colour By Numbers

October 1983
Culture Club
Colour By Numbers
3 out of 5

Highlights:
Karma Chameleon
It’s a Miracle
Church of the Poison Mind
Miss Me Blind

Say what you want about this band, the songs are well constructed and infectious.
I didn’t love Kissing to Be Clever. I found it dull in places and unrewarding. The hits were the hits, to be sure and they were great and they conjured great memories (and some not so great) but I gave that record a 2.5.
This one…
Look, 83 had a certain sound that really blew up. The Spandau/Heyward/Wham white boy R&B with sanded edges. Music for people who longed for corner trash can stylings of Frankie Valli, et al.
Once you get past the singles (like Kissing) the album isn’t very inspired. The most cutting edge (read:sellable) aspect of it is Boy George’s presentation of himself. But that presentation will only attract so many appreciators for so long. What he really sounds like he wishes he was is George Michael. (If George M. had recorded “Church of the Poison Mind” it would sound almost exactly the same…maybe slightly better.) This George got there earlier but there’s no doubt they are cut from very similar cloth.
The lounge act stylings of “Changing Every Day” is what this band is really about: A bunch of white kids who wish they were old white guys playing in Vegas.