Released on 1 April 1986 "From Luxury To Heartache" was the 4th., studio album by the British pop group Culture Club. It was the last studio album released by Culture Club until 1999's Don't Mind If I Do. The album spawned three singles "Move Away", "God Thank You Woman" & "Gusto Blusto". It was an album that was intended to restore Culture Club reputation as a
chart force to be reckoned with, but instead of that, the album accelerate their demise from music.
From Luxury to Heartache was produced by veteran pop and R&B producer Arif Mardin, who replaced Steve Levine, the producer of Culture Club's previous three albums, in a bid to revitalise the band's sound. Due to lead singer Boy George's growing addiction to drugs,
recordings dragged on for so long that Mardin had to disband the
sessions and leave it up to engineer Lew Hahn to record the final
vocals. The final credit on the album gave production credit to both
Mardin and Hahn on all tracks. Songs like "Gusto Blusto" and "Reasons"
took days for the addicted singer to finish.
Following the release of the album, rumours of George's heroin addiction began to circulate in the press and in British and US tabloids, and by the summer of 1986, he announced that he was indeed addicted to drugs. In July, he was arrested for possession of cannabis, several days later, keyboardist Michael Rudetsky, who played on the album and had co-written "Sexuality" with George, was found dead from a heroin overdose in George's home.
The band come from what critics called a disaster with Waking Up With The House On Fire, the Culture Club album that had failed to scale the giddy heights of its two predecessors. So, t was clear that the band who'd defined the early 80s but had
started to seriously flag by its mid-way point needed to mix things up
for studio effort number four.
In this case, From Luxury To Heartache
proved to be the final nail in the coffin of their golden years. After all, its 10 tracks were recorded amidst seemingly insurmountable
tensions. Not only had the on/off Boy George and Jon Moss just gone
through their messiest split but the former had suddenly gone from a
virtual teetotaller to a full-blown heroin addict within a matter of
months. With Boy George wrapped up within the grips of his addiction,
studio sessions reportedly also became delayed and interrupted so
frequently.
Considering this difficult inception, and unlike other albums from their heyday, this never received the remastering treatment, while lead single Move Away is its only track to have regularly featured in the band's reunion setlists, which it's a pity cause "God Thank You Woman" it's a fine track/single too as well.
The multiple Grammy award-winning
producer Mardin had also just worked his magic on another British pop
act’s masterpiece, Scritti Politti’s Cupid & Psyche 85. He adopted a similarly maximalist approach here, filling almost every
second with his bank of synths and drum machine beats, perhaps a little but overproduced, even the mighty
tones of Jocelyn Brown – joining ever-present Helen Terry on backing
vocals – struggle to make themselves heard. Arguably,
Culture Club have never sounded more vibrant than on the slap-bass funk
of Gusto Blusto, one of many kiss-offs no doubt aimed at the
drummer in the room,
Perhaps, the biggest misstep about From Luxury To Heartache
wasn't the decision to take a break from regular producer Steve Levine
or its failure to embrace the music emerging from the New York club
circuit, but its choice of singles. Move Away might have given the Club their final UK Top 10 hit. Second single God Thank You Woman peaked at No. 31 was even more pedestrian, combining faux-gospel pop with the kind of
corny sentiments. It’s quite
possibly the group's weakest single for several critics, but it works for me, at least after heard it being played on the A-Team episode which was a plus to me, ironically and despite of this, the record development in the US was even worse. "Gusto Blusto was a failed in the charts, and the final single "Heaven's Children" despite it was scheduled for released was cancelled.
Despite the album was an interesting reinvention for the band despite it didn't changed anyhting, within a year the band broke up and Boy George embarked on a solo career. George’s drug
habits only became even more serious and his relationships with Mikey
Craig, Roy Hay and Moss even sourer.
From Luxury To Heartache Track List:
1. Move Away
2. I Pray
3. Work On Me Baby
4. Gusto Blusto
5. Heaven's Children
6. God Thank You Woman
7. Reasons
8. too Bad
9. Come Clean
10. Sexuality
