Colour By Numbers [Remastered] - Culture Club > Reviews > Is It Really 20 Years Ago?

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Pure, unfussy pop
Disadvantages:	Karma Chameleon !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

HISTORY
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Going through my old vinyl collection I pulled out the first album I ever owned: Culture Club's "Colour By Numbers". This was Boy George & co's second album, the follow up to 1982's "Kissing To Be Clever". Looking back it would have been easy for this album to fall flat on its face after Boy George's sudden appearance on the scene in 1982. The record-buying public are a fickle bunch and an image-led band in a time of image-led bands could so easily have been lost in the mire. It is to their credit that their talent and George's tactical nous ensured they quelled such fears.

"Colour By Numbers" spawned four hits in the UK, went on to sell 9m worldwide and broke the band in the USA. It was released in 1983 and after twenty years since I last gave it a spin, here's what I found.

KARMA CHAMELEON
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Everyone knows this track! The harmonica intro, the uptempo beat all the way through and the video set on a 19th centrury southern steamboat. Listening to this track, it has dated rather badly but I am just relieved that it hasn't yet been covered by some gelled up boy band. This was the biggest selling single of 1983. (2 out of 5)

IT'S A MIRACLE
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A cutesy, bouncey, xylophone intro leads into a very catchy song that is a pleasure to hear again after all these years. George is sounding at his most camp and the moment of silence when the verse stops before the singalong chorus starts is typical 80's pop. A great track and the fourth and last single released from the album. (5/5)

BLACK MONEY
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The first slow track on the album and the longest. When I was a kid I remember this track being my least favourite. Now I'm an introspective adult, I love it. "Do you deal in black money?" George asks over an almost jazzy arrangement. Not bad at all. (3/5)

CHANGING EVERYDAY
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Another song with a jazzy theme and a track that I'm sorry to say I never liked first time around. Too mundane and repetitve and there's a good reason you never see this performed live by George or appearing on any Culture Club retrospective compilations. It's below par. (2/5)

THAT'S THE WAY
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Before the CD age, it was always quality over quantity. Albums had 9 or 10 tracks, no hidden tracks and very rarely featured "skits". Singles had generally great b-sides and this was the flipside of the 7" of Karma Chameleon. It's here in extended form and is a moody piano-led blues heartbreaker with added vocals from Helen Terry. I remember her as an Alison Moyet contemporary with an even more powerful voice. Too good for a b-side and just about cuts the mustard as an album track (3/5)

CHURCH OF THE POISON MIND
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Back we go into uptempo territory. The first single lifted from the album, this features Helen Terry wailing away in the background. I didn't know it as kid, but this is very similar in style to a lot of 60's Northern Soul. It wouldn't surprise me if something very similar were to show up on one of those Wigan Allnighter compilations. This is Karma Chameleon's big sister. No nursery rhyme chorus and lot more soulful. (4/5)

MISS ME BLIND
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The best track on the album and never released in the UK as a single. Quite obviously aimed at London's burgeoning club culture of the early 80's, this has a very US disco-lite theme to it and the end where the music fades out but the chorus continues to an acapella finale is a touch that I'd not heard before or since and is really quite thrilling. A great track. (5/5)

MISTER MAN
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A mid tempo jaunt similar to It's A Miracle but without the killer hook. "Mister Man full of hate", George chirps in a thinly-veiled protest against the darker side of human nature. Ironically, probably more relevant these days than in 1983. (3/5)

STORMKEEPER
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An oriental intro and then "Oh who is the man who puts waves on the sand/It's the stormkeeper". God knows what he's on about but in less than three years time George would succumb to a heroin overdose, so substances may have been at work whilst writing this song! Generally it's another midtempo plod but that's no bad thing in the context of this album that showcases soul, blues and pop. (3/5)

VICTIMS
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My mum hated this song and video and said it was depressing. I wasn't sure at the time but looking back it was the bravest thing Culture Club ever released as a single (and a Xmas one at that!). A maudlin ballad about death, it's got everything: piano, weeping strings and a stop-start bit three quarters of the way through with a big "Eastenders"-style drum bit to relaunch the track. Absolutely stunning and totally different to the cod-reggae/uptempo pop we had become accustomed to until then. (5/5)

SUMMARY
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For those who remember 80's pop with affection and missed out on this album, I would recommend that you seek it out. If you're too young to remember but want to know what your glamorous aunt was sipping her Diamond White to back in the day, you could do worse than this album. Culture Club reformed a couple of years ago and headlined the Here and Now 80's revival tour and for my mind, that should be that now. Let's remember them fondly as they were.