Culture Club: Kissing To Be Clever - 1981

Culture Club were just not really thought of as an albums band, either back at the height of their fame or subsequently, but I remember when this came out and I was doing some "make big money quick" night shift work in a factory (CBS Records, as it happened) and a bloke I worked with played this album endlessly, all night long. I am therefore very familiar with it. 

It is a pleasant enough collection of summery, light white funk of the sort that Wham! would utilise to great effect - rhythmic funky guitar strums enhanced by manufactured brass breaks alongside real trumpet and saxophone plus lots of synth breaks and rolling synth drums. 

George's oh so new romantic voice is surprisingly strong enough to deal with punchier numbers like Take Control and White Boy. Other highlights are the gently catchy Love Twist, with its authenticaly bassy and echoey dub reggae break, the deliciously bassy Boy Boy (I'm The Boy) and the hit single that wasn't (not a single in the UK) in I'll Tumble 4 Ya. 

The big hit Do You Really Want To Hurt Me is here, but this album is not simply a coathanger for that song, it is a worthwhile offering in its own right, albeit a bit of a dated one now. In 1982, however, this was the album to play if you had friends round or if you owned a wine bar. It was very much the sound of its era. Wham! and Spandau Ballet definitely followed suit, as did many other lesser bands.

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