By George . . . the Eighties rerun that is worth the wait!
BOY GEORGE & CULTURE CLUB Life (BMG) Verdict: Calmer chameleon ★★★★✩ ROBYN: Honey (Konichiwa) Verdict: Sweet Swedish pop ★★★★✩
Considering it should have arrived in 2015, it’s a minor miracle the first Culture Club album in 19 years has surfaced at all.
Just as remarkable is the fact that Life, originally called Tribes before being delayed by squabbles, indecision and a series of ailments, is thoroughly enjoyable.
it’s a record that beams its way through the bruises. out today, it ripens and finetunes the carefree charm of 1983’s ten million- selling Colour By numbers by reintroducing george to guitarist roy Hay’s knack for a tuneful hook and the supple rhythms of bassist Mikey Craig and drummer Jon Moss.
Mixing pop, reggae and big-hearted soul, it trades on former glories without relying exclusively on nostalgia.
The singer who ‘loved without a reason’ on 1982’s do You really Want To Hurt Me and once famously said he preferred ‘a nice cup of tea’ to sex is now a man of 57 who has come through drug addiction and jail to sing with fresh authority and purpose.
His voice is deeper, but it retains a soulful warmth that is put to use on 11 songs that build on the autobiographical leanings of his excellent 2013 solo album This is What i do. He says that Life’s spirit is one of ‘joyful cynicism’ — and that’s an apt summing up.
George reflects on the hard times with disarming candour. Bad Blood confronts his selfdestructive streak (thankfully a thing of the past) and different Man documents a journey back from the abyss that reaches its resolution on a hymn-like title track that looks to ‘a perfect future just ready for me’.
runaway Train uses the railway lines of suburban London, where the singer grew up, as a metaphor for life on the road: ‘The truth is i’m a runaway train.’
There are nods to his more recent career as a dance music dJ, but Life is rooted largely in the blends that made Culture Club one of the world’s biggest bands in the eighties. reggae grooves underpin the brassy Let somebody Love You. runaway Train and different Man sit on the cusp of seventies soul and disco.
The latter finds george summoning the kind of vocal power more readily associated with Tom Jones, the judge he replaced for one season on The Voice in 2016. something must have rubbed off.
With the shimmering rock number More Than silence adding variety, Life reiterates the band’s cool adaptability without diluting their essence. Culture Club’s sixth album has been a long time coming, but it’s worth the wait.
sWedisH singer- songwriter robyn also returns today after a long absence.
it has been eight years since the robotic electronics of Body Talk, an album released rather confusingly in three instalments but illuminated by the Top Ten single dancing on My own. in that time, the 39-year- old split from her boyfriend (they have since reunited) and faced the death of close friend and collaborator Christian Falk.
she has also undergone an artistic transformation, abandoning machine-tooled dance beats for softer rhythms.
The upshot is an album of depth that works as well at home as it will do in the clubs.
STRIPPING away vocal affectations to bare her emotions, robyn chronicles her move away from despair track-by-track.
she begins by mourning her loss — ‘ this empty space you left behind’ — on Missing U before singing of the memories triggered by hearing a familiar song on Because it’s in The Music.
Things start looking up on the gauzy title track, written for the HBo TV series girls at the request of show creator Lena dunham. By the time we get to ever Again, the singer is vowing: ‘ We’re never going to be broken-hearted.’
As a scandinavian pop heroine, robyn opened doors for younger singers such as Zara Larsson and sigrid. Her trailblazing instincts are shining through again here.