At Worst...The Best Of Boy George And Culture Club CD

Producers include: Steve Levine, Arif Mardin, Lew Hahn, Bruce Forest, Bobby Z.
Includes liner notes by Boy George.
Photographers: Nick Knight; André Csillag.
The success of "The Crying Game" marked a comeback for Boy George, especially in the U.S., where his solo career had never taken hold beyond the dance clubs, and SBK (distributor of his label, Virgin) took advantage of his resurgence by compiling this 75-minute, 19-track album, which combines his former group Culture Club's biggest hits with selections from his solo work. The ten Culture Club tracks are of a piece, from 1982's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (which here leads off with an ominous voice intoning, "Popularity breeds contempt") to "Love Is Love," which wasn't a hit but is a better choice than the missing "War Song," which was. The solo tracks are a more mixed batch, and not only because Top 40 U.K. hits like "Keep Me in Mind," "Sold," and "To Be Reborn" are missing. They often rely on loud percussion tracks that strand Boy George's tender tenor somewhere in the distance. He remains most effective on rhythmic ballads, whether "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," "Everything I Own" (his chart-topping first U.K. solo hit), or "The Crying Game." ~ William Ruhlmann
Boy George may get top billing on this 1993 hits compilation, occasioned by his surprising comeback hit with the theme from the gender-bending mystery THE CRYING GAME, but there's no hiding the fact that the best songs are the ten of 19 here recorded with Culture Club. These singles are excellent commercial pop-soul, and several of them--"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," the utterly sublime "Time (Clock of the Heart)," and "Church of the Poison Mind" in particular--are about as good as chart pop got in the early '80s. Boy George's solo singles are more uneven, but the high points, like a reggae-tinged cover of Bread's "Everything I Own" and the Pet Shop Boys-produced "The Crying Game," are wonderful. Culture Club's first two albums are excellent, but this may be the only Boy George solo record you need.

"At Worst"

Entertainment Weekly (12/3/93, p.78) - "...a fully rounded picture of a true pop eccentric...." - Rating: B-
Q (11/93, p.142) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...the sundry ups and downs on the way from Boy George's first hit to the latest never got to the quality of his vocals..."