Customer Reviews

Culture Club

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a borderline-obsessive Culture Club fan I was rabid upon the arrival of this box set. Knowing about the unreleased CC material and the confusing BG solo history I thought this would be a godsend. Well, there are miracles here (the SUPERB remastering) as well as misses:

The packaging is great with the exception of the fact that this box set has no title. With all of the group's clever lyrics and song titles surely one of those could have been used as a title for this collection. The booklet is illustrated with great full-color photos and bitchy, fabulous quotes from BG. The other band members appear only a few times and there are virtually no quotes or comments from them. It definitely gives the impression that they were not involved with this project. The major packaging sin (unforgiveable in this case) is that there are NO song annotations or information. Despite this being a collection mostly of rarities. If you don't already know these songs or where they came from (or whether they are CC or BG solo recordings) then you're out of luck. For collectors this is frustrating.

The demos that were recorded for EMI are here and will be the main selling point for most fans. They're good, especially the versions of songs that later became hits. The band had it together even before Virgin signed them. However, another set of demos exist but are not represented here.

You'll find a few requisite hits here but if you're looking for a definitive overview of them, look elsewhere. The collection basically ignores the 3rd and 4th albums which is a mistake. Anyone who missed the reunion album will find some pleasant surprises here as the new stuff is good.

The rare songs on here are worth hearing although perhaps not repeatedly. Their hits remain their best recordings. Among the treasure chest highlights are Shirley Temple Moment (which shows why the group imploded), a few solo BG songs (If The Lord Can Forgive, These Boots), though Il Adore & Crying Game aren't here & unexplained re-recordings of Love Is Love & Victims.

If you aren't into BG solo works then you'll find yourself drowning in confusion. Lots of what's here is from his confusing solo recordings, not that you'll find any information on the songs origins. This is also not a definitive review of BG as a solo act. That collection doesn't exist yet.

The remixes are also an odd affair here. If you're looking for the hard-to-find, classic versions of CC hits they're not here. Instead there are a lot of odd remixed versions of songs that are a bit odd to begin with. Worth listening to but a lot of stuff deserved space on this collection more. The last disc is all new remixes that are surprisingly good and also help make this an essential (if frustrating) purchase for hardcore fans.

This collection spans 4 discs, a full 2 of which are more than worth your time because they contain the major hits, revealing demos and good new remixes. Disc 2 & 3 are hit and miss and you should enter them at your own risk. For those of you who will find this box set frustrating (and all of you will) you might take heart in knowing the the original 3 CC albums are being re-released with remastering and bonus tracks. CC's producer Steve Levine says they have a multitude of unreleased material and that the bonus tracks will not be duplicated from this set. So anyone lamenting the absence of this track or that might still find it released soon.

At first hearing word of a Culture Club boxset I was immediately intrigued by hearing all the unreleased material that's been locked away in some record label's vault--not to mention the prospect of finally having all the 12" mixes that have yet to appear on compact disc (the complete "Gusto Blusto", "White Boy", "Don't Go Down That Street", "Heaven's Children"...) finally preserved on CD. Well, I was half correct in my assumptions: There is a sampling of demos (both earlier and later, and songs that have been unheard until now) but no 12" versions of those hayday Culture Club tracks. The demos are of particular interest, and are this collections most valuable inclusions, simply because they sound so solid. Familiar tracks like "I'm Afraid Of Me" and "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" sound like finished product in their less complex pre-studio steriod states. Ardent Club fans (myself included), however, may be a bit disappointed with the presence of so much Boy George solo material. Before the middle of Disc 2 George's solo material begins (not even beginning with Sold material, but with The Martyr Mantras material), seemingly having gotten the Culture Club requisites out of the way too soon. Sold is merely represented with a new mix of "Everything I Own", while the inferior High Hat--but still neglected--is given minor notice here with a new mix of "Kipsy". If such a sampling of George's solo recording was going to be on this compilation at all there could have been better and more obscure material chosen (his b-sides "I Pray" and "Use Me" come to mind). George has cleaned his solo vault twice in the past few years (The Unrecoupable... & U Can Never...), so almost half of this collection devoted to his material was simply unnecessary. I would have slapped down the price of another four disc collection if he were to release one of his own, rather than compromise this one. Besides, the inclusion of solo careers is a lopsided affair here, since Mikey Craig and Jon Moss (Heartbeat UK) both released records after Culture Club, as well. Where are those curiousities? Overlooked, also, is the often--and criminally--underrated From Luxury To Heartache album. No alternative versions, no demos, nor unrealeased tracks from those sessions? I also would have like to have heard the Peter Asher demos that are mentioned in George's autobio...but they're not included. In place of any of that we get yet another remix of "Love Hurts" and four versions of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me". Lacking also are this collection's liner notes. Other than producer credits there is no track annotation--and frustratingly so! Shots of Roy Hay, Mikey Craig, and Jon Moss make up less than half of the photos included (guess who makes up the rest?), and you'd be challenged to find the names of these bandmates listed in these resplendently photo-filled pages. Although, the singer's is listed under his innumerable quotes that are peppered throughout. After listening to the music, seeing all the photos, and reading all of the words, it's clear that this was an unbalanced event. While I've an ardent fan of the band's and of George's on his own, there were three guys who played behind him. I would have enjoyed this set much more had every track included been a Culture Club track. If you've been left wondering why these four guys had such a difficult time getting along, this mistakenly truncated Culture Club Boxset (for the sake of Boy George's solo career) and Disc 1 Track 19 are answer enough. As a collection, this is limited and disappointing.

Disc one : The demos range from sometimes confident and promising to mostly awkward and amatuerish. Let's face it, that's why they are demos. 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.

I'm a big fan of culture club, but i found this box set a bit much to digest. after the second CD the box set looses it's luster. There is plenty of bitchy stuff in the booklet between the CDs. But none of the material give you no real insight to the box set or the music itself. In fact the first page tells you to by the book "Take it Like a Man, maybe then we'll understand the box set. well i read the book and it somewhat coincides with box set. although I'm a bit disapointed eyes of medusa was on the track list. But there are plus sides. Like all the demos tracks. Like Kissing 2 be clever. which almost sounds like Bow wow wow. There's also some stuff from thier latest album "don't mind if I do" which unfortunatly wasn't released in America and seemingly would be a just as good or even better then Colour By Numbers. In short this box set is great for the demos, but really lacks substance. It doesn't really give a full aspect of Culture Club. It's almost like a greatest hits album expaned four folds. obsessive culture club fans will find this box set heaven set. others lost after the second CD.

This box set is absolutely fantastic. I have had everything by Culture Club, or so I thought. But even the demos on these discs could have been hits! And the remastering makes all their hits sound better than ever. I have rated this 5 stars because of the great music and sound quality. I would rate the package 3 stars, because of the lack of music notes, recording information, band history, etc. But I guess this is available elsewhere? Would have been nice to include here though!

Okay, I'll admit it. I was a huge fan of Culture Club in the day. But for an "off-the-beaten-path" youth in the conservative American south at that time, how could I not be. What was my alternative? Journey? And Freddy Mercury's teeth were too big. The best way to disappoint my parents was to buy an album with a picture of a very mannish woman on the cover and play it over and over. Then when I found out HE could sing, well it was just a bonus. Sadly, as I slalom headfirst into middle age, this compilation is a good thing to have in my bright red roadster.

These songs take me right back to staying out past curfew, my first drunken adventures, and even some fun college remembrances, i'm still not ready to claim. The good news is that, even as dj's and producers have come into their own mixing some of our favorites of today, they have not forgotten to put their special touches to some of our old favorites, and they are all here.

In America we haven't really been able to keep up with Boy George's solo work, but for those of us who have, this compilation helps to fill in some of the gaps. I'm sorry to see a lack of a couple of Culture Club album titles, but I bet you won't even notice until you get to the end.

And if you need me, I'll be the middle-aged guy in the bright red roadster stopped at the green light, jamming, shaking my head, and looking for my lipstick.

Length:: 0:58 Mins

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).

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. 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.

Being a huge fan of Boy George and Culture Club from way back, I was impressed and quite pleased with this purchase. It did not disappoint. 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.

This CD & DVD made me so happy. 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 Album/DVD rules!