AMG Review of VH1 Storytellers/Greatest Moments

Michael Gallucci
All Music Guide

This two-CD set is a double dose of Culture Club greatest hits: one includes a reunion show the band did for the cable music network in 1998; the other gathers 13 of the quartet's best studio tracks from 1982 to 1998 (the newly recorded "I Just Wanna Be Loved" is the first song Culture Club recorded together since their split in 1987). The Storytellers disc is a pretty lazy run-through of all the obvious tunes, with little spark generated on stage among the long-separated combo (and there's not much storytelling either). Greatest Moments, however, is a pretty thorough retrospective and glorious proof of what made Culture Club leaders of the British faux-soul invasion of the '80s. Most of the group's hits are here -- "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," "Time (Clock of the Heart)," "Church of the Poison Mind," "Karma Chameleon," "I'll Tumble 4 Ya," "Miss Me Blind," etc. -- as are a couple of Boy George solo cuts ("The Crying Game" is the only one of interest). Skip the first half, soak in the second.