Culture Club Colour by Numbers

Culture Club 'Colour by Numbers' (Virgin Records, 1983)

I have had a complete mental block with this record. I couldn't think of a photograph, I considered getting those coloured magnetic numbers but it turns out my nephew doesn't have any, and suddenly three weeks had passed and I'd still not done a blip. Further compounding my inability to take action was the fact that I was not looking forward to listening to 'Colour by Numbers' and I had a batch of much more worthy new releases to get through.

About a fortnight ago I asked Lu to place this on the death deck and the result was awful. The record sounded terrible and it wasn't just the music. Upon further inspection it was clear there was a reasonable amount of surface damage and it was also filthy. I've cleaned it up and it now sounds much better, but the surface noise is still audible.

Unfortunately, the music is consists of horrible white boy reggae pop with vomit inducing saxophone and harmonica throughout. The synth work is so behind the times when you compare it to the likes of Bronski Beat or Frankie and the overall the production has dated badly.

I'm sure there's a deep subtext in the lyrics if you delve into the torrid love affair between Boy George and Jon Moss, but the record is so unimaginative that I can't even be bothered looking up Wikipedia.

'Colour by Numbers' is an anomaly in my collection as I really don't like anything about it apart from the pull out lyric sheet. Boy George has an unmistakable voice and he did appear in The A Team, but even that's not as cool as 'Relax' blasting out of Steve Guttenberg's car park booth in Police Academy.

Lu's first single was 'Karma Chameleon' and she played it so often that she apparently wore the grooves out. I've yet to achieve this even with Morbid Angel records so she really must have loved it! I'm sure this will appear on the death deck next time the ladies are round for a social night.

'I'm a man without conviction' warbles Boy George; not exactly true nowadays!

Peace