Tom Waits may dwell in shadow, but it feels
like moving into the light with this album. From the album cover that looks
like the cover of Smash Hits magazine, to frontman Boy George (George O’Dowd)
and his flamboyant gender-bending appearance, to the light soul-inflected pop
of the actual music, everything about this album suggests joy at life.
Not that the lyrics necessarily bear this
out when examined closely. The slow soul track Black Money, for example (with
some lovely soulful backing vocals from Helen Terry) uses black money –
undeclared currency derived from illicit sales – as a metaphor for unrequited
or non-balanced love. Terry duets with George on That’s The Way (I’m Only
Trying To Help You), a smart little stripped down Elton John-esque gospel piano
piece that shows that Culture Club aren’t all just about the big pop single
success of Karma Chameleon.
As well as Terry, the other most valuable
session artist has to be harmonica player Judd Lander, who (along with Terry
again) adds a lot to Church Of The Poison Mind as well as the unmistakable
opening riff for Karma Chameleon. The regular band members largely stick to
providing a solid support, although Steve Hay gets a little guitar solo in Miss
Me Blind that’s very Eighties. The album ends with a big power ballad, Victims,
which is a completely different feel to the rest of the album.
I was surprised by this album – it's not
one I would ever have listened to, but it actually highlights George’s range.
It’s Eighties pop, sure, with a mostly soul / gospel tinge to it, but it does it
well. At times I thought it a better offering in the genre than Thriller, which
I’m sure is some kind of blasphemy.
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