Name: Culture Club by Culture Club
Brand: Culture Club
SKU: 724354376153
Price: 9.9 USD
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 3 (518 reviews)

COMPILATION

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Culture Club was always a mixture of outrageous, yet fashionable images, largely courtesy of lead singer Boy George, and attractive pop-soul music topped by his melodic, vulnerable tenor voice. The band made only four albums in its 1982-1986 heyday, plus a 1999 reunion effort that was not released in the U.S. Yet this box set manages to spread across more than five hours, and it doesn't even include all of the group's hit singles. One way it achieves that length is by including solo recordings by Boy George, but not all of his hits are featured, either. (His one big solo success in the U.S., "The Crying Game," is missing.) The listener will have to know the difference beforehand, however, since very little is spelled out in the album's sparse annotations, which consist mostly of brief quips from Boy George included in a 72-page booklet of photographs. The collection begins with ten demos Culture Club recorded for EMI before being signed by Virgin, among them a version of their first hit, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (one of four renditions on the box). Their hitmaking period is covered during the rest of the first disc, at least through their second album, Colour by Numbers. There is only one track from their third album, and none from their fourth. Before the halfway mark on the second disc, the collection has turned to Boy George solo tracks, many of them in demo or remixed form. And so it goes for the rest of the album, with a generous helping of songs from Don't Mind If I Do, the reunion album. In total, 25 of the 74 tracks are previously unreleased. For the uncritical Boy George fanatic, the result may be nirvana; for the general listener, it is a miscellaneous mess.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Culture Club

Product information

Release options

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 1

1. Put It Down

2. You Know I'm Not Crazy

3. Kissing 2 B Clever

4. Stand Down

5. Next 2 You

6. Peculiar World

7. Believe

8. I'm Afraid Of Me

9. White Boy

10. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me

11. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me

12. Love Twist

13. I'll Tumble 4 Ya

14. Time (Clock Of The Heart)

15. Mister Man

16. Church Of The Poison Mind

17. Karma Chameleon

18. Its A Miracle

19. Shirley Temple Moment

20. Victims

Volume 2

1. Miss Me Blind

2. Colour By Numbers

3. Changing Every Day

4. That's The Way

5. Mistake Number 3

6. Murder Rap Trap

7. Man-Shake

8. Bow Down Mister

9. I Specialise In Loneliness

10. If The Lord Can Forgive

11. Love Is Lonely

12. Sweet Toxic Love

13. Moghul Tomb

14. Vanity Case

15. Who Killed Rock 'N' Roll?

16. Starman

17. Suffragette City

18. Mr Strange

19. Spooky Truth

20. Funtime

21. Satan's Butterfly Ball (4 Leigh Bowery)

Volume 3

1. These Boots Are Made 4 Walking

2. Genocide Peroxide (4 Maz)

3. Less Than Perfect

4. Confidence Trick

5. Sign Language

6. How D'Ya Keep Your Credibility?

7. Is There Cream In This Soup?

8. Love Hurts

9. Same Thing In Reverse

10. See Thru

11. Strange Voodoo

12. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me

13. Masheri

14. Grand Scheme Of Things

15. Lions Roar

16. Victims (2002)

17. If I Were U

18. Church Of The Poison Mind

Volume 4

1. Karma Chameleon

2. I Just Wanna Be Loved

3. Black Money

4. Everything I Own

5. Love Is Love (2002)

6. Kipsy

7. Time (Clock Of The Heart)

8. Hiroshima

9. Cold Shoulder

10. Police And Thieves