Kevin O'Conner 2008-06-19
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Colour By Numbers still holds up as Culture Club's finest album.
By the time of its October 1983 release, "Church of the poison mind" and "Karma chameleon" were already hits, reaching no. 2 and no. 1, respectively, in the UK. The arrival of the album proper consolidated Culture Club's status as one of the most popular groups in the world.
Some may have missed the tribal percussion elements of the first album, but the new album mined Motown ("Church of the poison mind"), country ("Karma chameleon"), and gospel ("That's the way") influences to further refine the Culture Club sound. And the songs were so much better overall.
Helen Terry was also added to the group; her vocal presence is most notable on "Church of the poison mind", "Black money", and "That's the way". (She also features on "Time (Clock of the heart)" which was included on the US edition of Kissing To Be Clever, and on the Japanese edition of Colour By Numbers, but was just a stand-alone single in the UK.)
The singles here are largely the best songs on the album, though I still think that "It's a miracle" made more sense in its original version as "It's America". "Black money" should have been a single, but never was. I tend to skip over "Changing every day" and "Stormkeeper", but neither song is bad.
"That's the way (I'm only trying to help you)" is really the highlight of the album for me. It is simply piano and vocals, but the interplay between Boy George and Helen Terry makes for a riveting listen.
I'm not fond of the remastered edition; most of the extra tracks are available elsewhere, and I find the overall sound too compressed for my taste. My recommendation would be to find a used copy of the previous CD edition, and purchase the extra tracks from this edition as separate downloads.