Colour By Numbers
Culture Club

When it comes to Culture Club, I've only ever heard the song "Karma Chameleon" before listening to this album. It's a pretty smooth new romantic track that I always found mildly catchy and is easily the best song here. Not sure why, but the harmonica always seemed out of place and sort of soured the mix. But I do like the chorus and the harmonies; they're very light and cleanly performed. Digging into it lyrically, the sentiment here stands out. Boy uses the imagery of a chameleon to describe the desire to blend in and conform to avoid alienation and scrutiny. Clean and light are probably the two best adjectives I can use to describe this album's overall aesthetic. Boy George is a solid vocalist, taking influences from RnB vocalists which I find somewhat unique for this genre of music and adds some enjoyability and life to many of the performances. The vocals are the highlight here and generally carry (like on the song Black Money). I'll also acknowledge his good writing here, like on the closer "Victims" a song whose meaning is difficult to pin down, but the imagery is evocative and almost tragic. The instrumentation is dull and dry to me for the most part. The harmonica and saxophone that occasionally crop up act as blemishes rather than enhancements and only serve to age this album. There are some cool moments, like the guitar solo on "Miss Me Blind", a song where I think the instrumentation's smooth, minimal, and reserved yet well-composed nature works in the track's favor. Ultimately though, my issues with this record boil down to just lackluster songs that are neither memorable nor interesting. It seems to be a recurring issue for me with New Romantic.

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