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Culture Club

Culture Club - Culture Club Audio CD

A fair review of the Culture Club "Culture Club" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Culture Club reviews here, or go back to the Culture Club tabs.

Band: Culture Club
Title: Culture Club
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-01-28
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Put It Down [Demo Version] 2: You Know I'm Not Crazy [Demo Version] 3: Kissing 2 Be Clever [Demo Version] 4: Stand Down [Demo Version] 5: Next to You [Demo Version] 6: Peculiar World [Demo Version] 7: Believe [Demo Version] 8: I'm Afraid of Me [Demo Version] 9: White Boy [Demo Version] 10: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me [Demo Version] 11: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me 12: Love Twist 13: I'll Tumble for Ya 14: Time (Clock of the Heart) 15: Mister Man 16: Church of the Poison Mind 17: Karma Chameleon 18: It's a Miracle 19: Shirley Temple Moment 20: Victims 21: Miss Me Blind 22: Colour by Numbers 23: Changing Everyday 24: That's the Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You) 25: Mistake Number 3 26: Murder Rap Trap 27: Man Shake 28: Bow Down Mister [A Small Portion to Be Polite Mix] 29: I Specialise in Loneliness [Jimmy T and the Old Fat Bastard Mix] 30: If the Lord Can Forgive 31: Love Is Lonely 32: Sweet Toxic Love 33: Moghul Tomb [Demo Version] 34: Vanity Case [Arabesque Mix] 35: Who Killed Rock N' Roll? 36: Starman 37: Suffragette City 38: Mr. Strange 39: Spooky Truth 40: Fun Time 41: Satans Butterfly Ball (4 Leigh Bowery) (With Intro) 42: These Boots Are Made 4 Walking [Nancy Headbanger Mix] 43: Genocide Peroxide [4 Maz] 44: Less Than Perfect 45: Confidence Trick 46: Sign Language 47: How d'Ya Keep Your Credibility? 48: Is There Cream in This Soup? [Demo Version] 49: Love Hurts [Evolution Mix] 50: Same Thing in Reverse [Evolution Mix] 51: See Thru [MP3s Mix] 52: Strange Voodoo [Jimmy T Prickly Heat Mix] 53: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me [TMS-PMS Mix] 54: Masheri [Demo Version] 55: Grand Scheme of Things [Demo Version] 56: Lion's Roar [Demo Version] 57: Victims 2002 58: If I Were U [Kinky Rolands 'Mind Over Substance Mix'] 59: Church of the Poison Mind [Budgie Man Electro Mix] 60: Karma Chameleon [Nail out of Coffin 'Rewind Mix' with Mr. Spree 200] 61: I Just Wanna Be Loved 62: Black Money [Hint of Helen Mix] 63: Everything I Own 64: Love Is Love 2002 65: Kipsy - Culture Club, MC Kinky 66: Time (Clock of the Heart) 67: Hiroshima 68: Cold Shoulder [Scary Newman Mix] 69: Police and Thieves [Dubversive Mix] 70: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me [Drumheads Twisted Nerve Mix] 71: Maybe I'm a Fool 72: Crystal Blue Persuasion 73: Armageddon [Demo Version] 74: Run, Run, Run [Demo Version]

An Unfortunate Waste of Time

In such an atmosphere, Culture Club came across as sunny rather than cold, human rather than mechanistic, colorful rather than monochromatic, and emotional rather than distant. Culture Club emerged at a time when the pop charts had become stale as moldy bread, and most of the more interesting of the new music coming out of England (and other places where aspiring young musicians picked up synthesizers instead of guitars) had a distinct gothic gloom that the average member of the record-buying public found to be cold at best (and alien at worst). Even the moody "Do you really want to hurt me", which was most of the world's first real exposure to the band, came across as smooth and engaging.

Culture Club's emergence also coincided with a resurgence of interest in Motown, whose influences on Culture Club's music were quite obvious ("Church of the poison mind" blatantly lifts from Stevie Wonder's "Uptight", for example). And, similar to Motown, Culture Club's music appealed to a variety of people as it blurred some of the rigidly defined categories the music industry had thrown up around everything.

This box set reflects very little of that appeal. Half of the first disc consists of demos that, for the most part, aren't that interesting (though they are surprisingly polished for demos); half the second disc jumps several years ahead to Boy George solo material; and the remaining two disc are a horrid mishmash of solo material, reunion tracks, unlistenable remixes, and more demos.

The packaging is similarly awful. The track listings make no distinction between Culture Club tracks and Boy George tracks, so you're likely to be very confused about what is what on the later discs unless you have followed Boy George's solo and DJ careers very closely. And there is little in the way of liner notes to speak of; what little there is tells only Boy George's side of the story.

In any event, it seems clear that this is not really a Culture Club set, but a Boy George set. In that respect, this collection is clearly mislabeled. I'm surprised that Virgin were even willing to release the thing.

If you want an overview of Culture Club's brief career, I'd suggest sticking with either the Greatest Moments/VH-1 Storytellers disc, or the more recently released Greatest Hits collection. Just avoid this.

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Execellent purchase
It did not disappoint. Being a huge fan of Boy George and Culture Club from way back, I was impressed and quite pleased with this purchase. The thing I liked most were the remixes and new versions of the old songs. I hope they have more stuff out there for the fans that we have never have heard before. I enjoyed this tremedously. .

CULTURE CLUB GREATEST HITS
I had a party and my friends and I all danced for hours! I had a lot of these songs during the 80's but on cassette tapes that haven't survived. This CD & DVD made me so happy. This Album/DVD rules! .

A Nice BIG... Box (set)
These Boots. What an excellent compilation, it is very well worth the dollar value, since there are Tracks/B sides/Unreleased Tracks/Covers of other singers + Songs (ie. . . "Nancy Sinatra", and some David Bowie)and I can't review this with out stressing that some of the older "classics" such as Victims/Karma Chameleon/Church of the Poisioned Mind/Love is Love, and so many others are newly remixed to the higest quality, some with the original feeling, and some completely different (ie church. . . . included in the box set) what a hot remix that is! The additional tracks and mixes make up for the missing greats such as "The Crying Game/Run "Sash feat Boy George"/Your Kisses are Charity feat. Dolly Parton/Love is Leaving/When Will U Learn/U Found Another Guy/The War Song/Generations of Love/Move Away/From Luxury 2 Heartache/No Clause 28. . . I could go on, but this set is great, even with the missing tracks, a 5 or 6 cd set would have been better, since there are MANY of the Boy's solo efforts included, so it is not just limited to C. Club. Being a fan I really appreciate this set, the mixes are mostly under 6 min. but still worth the price, look into the VH1 Story Tellers 2 CD set, and The Martyr Mantras (all remixes of solo efforts)Also one favorite is "B. G. aka Jesus Loves You, CD called The Devil in Sister George" this contains 5 fantastic mixes of solo and C. Club, with the new (1994)full remixes of Miss me Blind and my Favorite "Love Hurts" both chiming in between 635-710 min, both mixes are very dance floor friendly, also the 12" collection "plus". These CD's will complete your collection, as well as the CD remix singles, including "I just Wanna B Loved this CD maxi includes Do U Really Wanna Hurt Me/Quivver mix clocks in at a massive anthem time of 11:26 min. (SO HOTTT!!!) and Your Kisses, are Charity on CD maxi #2 both have additional mixes of Time,Clock of the heart @ 8:38min/Quivver's Amityville Remix(very hot)AND a funky dance version of Do U Really Wanna Hurt Me 7:11min/Kinky Disco mix, via Kinky Roland. All 3 bonus tracks on these 2 maxi singles are on TODAY's club dance standards with a great Hex or Calderone feel. Also "RUN"/Sash feat. Boy George a 2 CD maxi set, a total of 8 mixes all together very impressive, and the video is outstanding, other interests are maxi remixes of "When Will You Learn ava. on 2 maxi releases also, both are different, and great, as well as Love is Leaving CD Maxi remixes. So check them out, listen on line if U can, and buy them, trust me they all are HOT, and so is this 4 CD box set. for a REAL FAN, spend the $$$ Jason33305@aol. com prof. DJ.

left me wanting more
Let's face it, that's why they are demos. Disc one : The demos range from sometimes confident and promising to mostly awkward and amatuerish. They weed out the bad songs. And early Culture Club demos are a decidedly mixed bag. The early hits are then well represented, with some b-sides and choice album cuts thrown in. The song Victims is heard first in a recorded rehearsal that begins shakey and ends in a ridiculously campy argument between the band members, with the actual song - still a gorgeous, tender ballad - ending the disc.
Disc two : Starts promising, includes the song "Colour By Numbers", so good it should have been an A-side, not a B-side, or at very least the title track to their incredibly sucessful second album. The third Culture Club album is represented by one song ( another great ballad, Mistake Number 3) and the fourth is ignored altogether. And then all of a sudden we find ourselves inexplicably in the middle of Boy George's solo career, with a few new remixes and some previously unreleased material, rounded out with the more accesible tracks from his under-rated and misunderstood solo album Cheapness and Beauty.
Disc three: We begin where we last left the still solo George, with a campy, hard rock cover of these Boots Were Made For Walking. If nothing else I can assure you it sounds better than KMFDM's recent ham-fisted version of that same song. A few new Culture Club songs follow, some good, some just OK, then a few more demos ( again, some really good , especially the ballad Grand Scheme of Things , and some are OK - experimental or just half baked ). The remixes are what makes this disc really good. Strange Voodoo , If I Were U , and an updated, electro/techno Church of the Poison Mind are the highlights.
CD four: My favourite disc , it was remixed by Richie Stevens ( who also had a hand in the Gorillaz vs Spacemonkeys "Laika Come Home", a brilliant dub reggae / chill out / groove remix cd - he was one of the "Spacemonkeys" ). Dub reggae and electronic sounds are crafted expertly onto Culture Club and Boy George songs old and new ( in fact I think the "Scary Newman" remix of Cold Shoulder, on the 2000 Culture Club album Don't Mind If I Do far surpasses the original , and should have been a single. ) There are again a few demos that close out the disc, the best being a song called Armageddon, which happens to be my favourite song in the entire box set. My one and only complaint about this set is its presentation and packaging, it is the one thing that keeps this from a four star rating. My main gripe is that the discs tend to want to fall out of the book unless the book itself is left flat on its side. Indeed , I have had to purchase ANOTHER copy of this very expensive boxed set because the first and third discs fell out of the box and were lost forever in a nightclub when I was playing a few songs from the set. Sure, it was ultimately my own fault, I should have had each disc in a seperate slip case, but I wanted to show some people the book. Which brings me to my other complaint on the book. It has absolutely nothing interesting in the way of liner notes, other than the odd quips and rambling anecdotes from ( who else ) Boy George, a few words from the band members ( and by a few I mean literally less than a dozen)and production credits on the songs ( using hard to follow symbols, no less. ) I wanted more information on the demos, i. e. when they were recorded? are they group efforts or George's work alone? I wanted more vintage photos. There are FAR TOO MANY photos of George, and his boyfriend, and his entourage ( OK!! WE GET IT !! YOU HANG OUT WITH THE Beautiful People ) And to top it off, despite it being called very simply CULTURE CLUB, roughly half the material is Boy George's solo work. If I'd wanted a box set of his songs, I'd surely buy one. I am a fan, after all. But this is a Culture Club box set. And I do love it. I certainly paid enough for it. ( The both of them, actually . ) I'd maybe have done it a little differently. The botom line is that most fans who are willing to pay for a box set already have most of these songs. There is maybe one full disc of demos that are good and one full disc of new remixes that are previously unavailable. The remainder is either readily available or is of little or no merit or interest.
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You can see a complete list of all Culture Club discography, or go back to the Culture Club tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.