- Rebirths in the musical world come along with the regularity of Doctor Who’s reincarnations, and like the Time Lord’s 13 lives (or 14, depending how you count ‘em), some are more successful than others, some more enjoyable, some more ground-breaking and advancing a well-known theme; a bit like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Twelve Variations on ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman’. Recently, Nile Rodgers as Chic revived after some 20 odd years with new material, so after as similar hiatus, Culture Club have returned – though BMG have carefully named the artist as Boy George AND Culture Club. Given that Boy George aka George O’Dowd hasn’t really stopped releasing material under his name or a version thereof, it’s a bit hard to discern if O’Dowd teaming up again for a full album of 11 tracks with Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and former partner Jon Moss (who’s more or less straight than gay these days), makes much of a difference. Visually those three look old beyond their years, whereas O’Dowd manages to Madonna his way to still looking vital and relevant to the times.
Life though doesn’t hang together as well as it should. There are a few different things going on here and it just doesn’t sound a cohesive whole. No producer has been noted by the label or the band in pre-release info and that is cause for either suspicion or concern. Prior to the album’s release, three songs have been sent out to be the vanguard as “singles” (whatever that means in the 21st century of downloads and Spotify streaming playlists) and the first, Let Somebody Love You, promised something resembling their hey-day, with its light reggae style and O’Dowd’s still quality vocals. However, the album lacks a lot of the fun they used to have with songs like Church Of The Poison Mind, Move Away and the ubiquitous karaoke stomper Karma Chameleon. The opening tracks of this album God & Love, Bad Blood and Human Zoo have a darker rhythm line and just don’t really go anywhere and really are anaemic lyrically, which is saying something for this band who used to be very good in that department.
However, in the middle of the album O’Dowd’s vocals get their best showcase. In a parallel universe, Boy George is Patti LaBelle or Gladys Knight, a soul diva with a real yearning to make an emotional connection with the listener. So Runaway Train and Better Man bracketing Resting Bitch Face are the high point of this album. Oil & Water relives a little of the classic Victims from their seminal Colour By Numbers album of 1983, as well as the verse & bridge are close relatives of O’Dowd’s 2013 single, My God
Overall, this is an effort by the band to reflect they are not the 20somethings of gender-bending 80s pop, which is a relief, but a little of that joy from the vibrant fluoro colourings of the period, might have made this an album to treasure rather than play once, say “That’s nice” and move on.
- Blair Martin.