Pull the strings of emotion

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

18/12/83 : Colour By Numbers - Culture Club


Culture Club's second album, but the one everyone (well, me at least) remembers.  I remember liking it as well - let's see if it's stood the test of time.

And well, the good bits certainly do.  I remember liking "Church Of The Poison Mind" and "Victims" and they're still the best tracks for me, but "Miss Me Blind", "Black Money" and "That's The Way" are all good tracks I'd completely forgotten about.  I never really liked "Karma Chameleon" - and it's still catchy but annoying.  More annoying was "Mister Man" because it's similarly catchy and feels like it should be annoying, but I actually quite liked it.  But even considering the annoying tracks, it still has a good variety of stuff on there which is all pretty tight.  

Also well worth mentioning here is the presence of Helen Terry who provides cracking backing vocals (often not so backing) on several tracks which really complement George's contributions.  It’s also surprising it was so successful - the 80s weren’t the most enlightened of times and George wasn’t exactly subtle.  He was often his own worst enemy, but I do like to think he always tried to fight the good fight.  I never owned this one (although I think one of my sisters might have) but I did have a well-played taped copy, so I'm giving myself half a point for ownership - 1.5/2 so far.

We're at #3 in the charts this week with it in its 10th week out of a total of 56 (5 weeks at #1, last week in January 85) - it feels like it deserved more than that.  Above it in the charts were NTWICM and Paul Young - we did manage some new entries in the charts this week, the top one being Diana Ross' Portrait at #38.

Wikipedia tells us the album sold over 10 million copies globally and getting to #2 in the US - none too shabby an effort.  The critics generally liked it as well and, interestingly, particularly when compared with Paul's effort, all the songs were written by the group.

"Customers also listened to" A-ha, Cyndi Lauper, Men At Work and The Eurythmics - not an obvious mix, I'd suggest.  I remembered liking this album and was pleased to see it's stood the test of time well - even if the best known track is probably the one I like the least.

11/12/83 - All a bit disappointing
25/12/83 - Older, but not simpler, times

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