CULTURE CLUB
The Best Of
Culture Club fans, have of late; been very fortunate with the reissues in 2003 of several of their original albums, all fully re-mastered and with the addition of bonus tracks. It was also encouraging that a greatest hits retrospective DVD appeared towards the end of last year. For the more casual fan, these opportunities may have been seen as less attractive, than this collection of 16 tracks detailing most of the hits in one package, where each of Culture Club’s three albums released between 1982 and 1984 are appropriately represented here. However, don’t expect to find anything that wasn’t on the 1999 'Best of' as this is simply a reissue of that retrospective but packaged with a different cover (which is very reminiscent to Dusty Springfield’s 1982 synthesized-led 'White Heat' album).
During the early to mid 1980s it’s often forgotten how successful Culture Club were, notching seven top 5 hits in a row in the UK, including 2 number one hits ('Do You Really Want to Hurt Me' which opens this set and appropriately concludes with 'Karma Chameleon') and these singles are all included in this collection. Album tracks and non-charting singles, such as 'White Boy', 'The Dive' and 'I’ll Tumble 4 Ya' are also welcome additions. Also, included from the ‘Electric Dreams’ soundtrack is 'The Dream' (which has subsequently been issued on the 'Wake Up With The House on Fire' re-master). Other memorable hits included, are 'Victims', 'Time (Clock of the Heart)', 'The Medal Song' and 'Church of the Poison Mind'. Generally, this is a very uplifting collection of songs.
Noticeable omissions are the singles from 1986 album; the top 10 hit 'Move Away', 'God Thank You Woman', and the 1998 comeback 'I Just Wanna Be Loved'. There would be ample space on the disc for the inclusion of these tracks, and they would have made the disc so much more complete. (It seems that there may be a problem relating to the 1986 recordings, as the 'From Luxury to Heartache' album was also noticeably excluded from the EMI reissue programme, and still hasn’t been given the polish at the time of writing, but there’s rumours circulating that it may see a 2006 release…)
A disappointment with the collection is that the tracks are not the re-mastered ones, as they appear on the original albums, and therefore many are not quite as punchy as they should be. A shame that such a flaw, where the tracks have clearly already been re-mastered have not been included in this collection. However, if you’re looking for a retrospective package, which contains most of the hits, and for a bargain price, look no further - this is definitely for you!
During the early to mid 1980s it’s often forgotten how successful Culture Club were, notching seven top 5 hits in a row in the UK, including 2 number one hits ('Do You Really Want to Hurt Me' which opens this set and appropriately concludes with 'Karma Chameleon') and these singles are all included in this collection. Album tracks and non-charting singles, such as 'White Boy', 'The Dive' and 'I’ll Tumble 4 Ya' are also welcome additions. Also, included from the ‘Electric Dreams’ soundtrack is 'The Dream' (which has subsequently been issued on the 'Wake Up With The House on Fire' re-master). Other memorable hits included, are 'Victims', 'Time (Clock of the Heart)', 'The Medal Song' and 'Church of the Poison Mind'. Generally, this is a very uplifting collection of songs.
Noticeable omissions are the singles from 1986 album; the top 10 hit 'Move Away', 'God Thank You Woman', and the 1998 comeback 'I Just Wanna Be Loved'. There would be ample space on the disc for the inclusion of these tracks, and they would have made the disc so much more complete. (It seems that there may be a problem relating to the 1986 recordings, as the 'From Luxury to Heartache' album was also noticeably excluded from the EMI reissue programme, and still hasn’t been given the polish at the time of writing, but there’s rumours circulating that it may see a 2006 release…)
A disappointment with the collection is that the tracks are not the re-mastered ones, as they appear on the original albums, and therefore many are not quite as punchy as they should be. A shame that such a flaw, where the tracks have clearly already been re-mastered have not been included in this collection. However, if you’re looking for a retrospective package, which contains most of the hits, and for a bargain price, look no further - this is definitely for you!
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