Boy George & Culture Club ~ VH1 Storytellers/Greatest Moments (live/hits comp) (album review) ... Love is love!

Style: pop
Label: Virgin
Year: 1998
Home: England

Members: Boy George ~ vocals
Roy Hay ~ guitar/keyboards/b. vocals
Mickey Craig ~ bass
Jon Moss ~ drums

Additional: John Themis ~ guitar/b. vocals
Richie Stevens ~ percussion
Zee Cowling ~ b. vocals
Ed Manion ~ sax
John Berry ~ trumpet
Tom Malone ~ trombone
Rob Paparozzi ~ harmonica

How can you not like CC? Okay, the Boy is a little strange, but he's not a bad singer. The songs are a little gay, but you know you like singing along. But, do the unimaginable & ignore the visuals, the history, the scandals & what you have is one of the best pop bands of the 80's. Memorable lyrics - that could be taken in so many ways, always a selling point - tied to a fun almost reggae tinted dance beat, songs you can sing along with, a lack of anything pretentious like guitar solos & intricate & far under-rated rhythms. The songs are still delightful today as they were upon their debut & its hard to say otherwise. They even stand up when covered by other bands. This CD brings together a live concert & a greatest hits package. It sounds great at 28 songs, but there's lots of duplication. Two hits i.e. "Everything I Own", "Karma Chameleon" & "Love Is Love") are not given a live work-out. But, four songs are not in the greatest hits, but include a couple highlights of the live show, perhaps because they're not so well known to us listeners & engrained in our minds. This includes the lesser known "Black Money" from their second album ... the one that featured "Karma Chameleon", you know ... & "Strange Voodoo" from their wonderful 1999 reunion album Don't Mind If I Do & sounds more akin to Boy George's solo work that's less pop & more moody with a heavy keyboard line. Then there's the piano & duel vocal "That's The Way (I'm Only Trying To Help You)", a beautiful ballad of only these three instruments that must be heard & is not what you'd expect from CC & the new "What Do You Want" that's complete reggae right down to the vocal phrasing, neither of these from any of their studio albums. Outside of the fan only song duplication, the problem with the Storytellers is a that the performances sound like the band just got off tour, not been apart for 13 years. There's no real spark of new life outside of "That's The Way (I'm Only Trying To Help You)". There's little moments here & there of something new (i.e. "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Miss Me Blind") & Boy George sounds as great as ever, but the band plays it safe beyond just adding a minute or so to everything. Of course, a reunion concert is a strange thing. Do you play it safe or play it adventurous? Do you play the records or something a little different reflecting of changing days? For the hardcore fan the differences will probably be noticeable, but I doubt for the casual fan. Though, the extended band beyond the core four do flesh out the songs & are a welcome edition. & the key to CC has always been some very simple sound arrangements that are more simple then they are. But, I've always preferred a live show that offered something other than the album. In terms of a Storytellers episode there's been better. Where Meat Loaf or others might have been wordy with their banter, Boy George keeps it modest & light & under-whelming. There's no big lyrical revelations here, which is what many expect from this MTV series. This might have been better as a plain old fashioned reunion special. It would also have been interesting to dig out some obscure songs ... but CC really has a lot of hits so there's little room left once they include the new songs. So, is there an incentive to listen to this live show? Well, personally, I'd recommend getting the video. That's fun. Particularly as all but Boy have dumped the clown suits & bad haircuts I always found distracting. Boy is a costume master, whatever the era or intake of drugs, I just never rated the rest of the boys that highly as fashion models. As for the Greatest Moments ... it is exactly what it says! I always enjoy when I pull out my CC & the hits is probably the better way to go than the individual albums. I think what I always enjoyed was that little ethnic beat that makes their music more than just straight pop. & have you listened to Mikey Craig's bass playing? He's all over the place & pretty much the primary melody instrument. It's hardcore funk George Clinton would be proud of. Then, there's "The Crying Game" & "Victims" ... How can you not weep at these?

Boy George ~ Cheapness & Beauty (album review) ... With a dash of lipstick!

Style: dance, hard rock, glam
Label: Virgin
Year: 1995
Home: England

Members: Boy George ~ vocals
John Themis ~ guitar/b. vocals
Winston Blisset ~ bass
Tansay Ibrahim ~ drums
Mike Timothy ~ keyboards
Lady Zee, Linda Duggan ~ b. vocals
Martin Bell, Stefan Frank ~ percussion

Guest: Luis Jardim ~ ethnic percussion
Hossam Ramzy ~ mandolin/violin

Those who know the Boy only from Culture Club have missed out on his most diverse musical output, far different than the reggae-tinged saccharine dance pop he became famous for. His solo outings have ranged from generic dance (i.e. Sold), to theater songs (i.e. Taboo), to DJ techno mixes (i.e. The Martyr Mixes), to acoustic gay & Hindu-themed love songs (i.e. Unrecoupable One Man Bandit), but Cheapness & Beauty remains an under-looked side avenue of guitar-driven hard rock that followed his successful single "The Crying Game". Though Unrecoupable One Man Band would follow from the same band, it was largely demos & acoustic live favorites & lacked the hard edge & completeness that Cheapness & Beauty had ... sadly, as this is a wonderful new face for the eternal boy of many faces. The song titles give it all as to the mood to expect: "Satan", "Sad", "God Don't Hold a Grudge", "Genocide", "If I Could Fly", "Evil Is So Civilized", "Blindman" "Unfinished Business" & "Funtime" penned by Iggy Pop & David Bowie. In many ways this might the more introspective side of BG oft troubled life, albeit many of his songs have been introspective but always hidden under the androgynous image, tongue-in-cheek jestfulness & dance beat. The androgyny is still here but BG is allowing himself to musically cut loose in ways never before attempted. In his solo career BG let the gay themes flow more openly starting with this release, probably because not finding himself getting on the charts he didn't have to worry about what would keep him from it or what people would think of him, particularly obvious with the delightful transgendered anthem "Same Thing In Reverse". We expect BG to sing about sexuality & its comforting to hear him doing it finally. Glam influenced 80's rock guitars lace the album creating something more akin to Alice Cooper while BG doesn't change his soft singing style, considering glam is in many ways perfect for his style & the mix works well for the most part ... though if BG has a hard side to his persona it never comes out in his voice with rockin' out not a word in his vocabulary. While, underneath the rock edge is some diversity, to be pushed to the limit with Unrecoupable One Man Bandit, that never get enough appreciation including electronic bubbles in place of guitar solos (i.e. "Funtime"), soft ballads ("If I Could Fly", "Cheapness & Beauty", "Il Adore") while "Same Thing In Reverse" is actually a folksy tune with a violin & "Unfinished Business" has a mandolin strumming against an acoustic guitar & orchestra. This is a successful album but not successful in the desired financial way & thus BG found himself dropped from Virgin records & largely vanishing back to the underground where he started. It's shame because he really has a lot to offer beyond the make-up, but what started as an asset also became a straight-jacket because though glam has make-up'd lead singers ... not this type. For those that don't believe BG is good away from his old band or outside of a dance beat should be warned!