The fourth and last studio album from their heyday was From Luxury To Heartache in 1986, which featured their last big hit, "Move Away". At this point, the reggae influence was almost gone in their music, and replaced with a more pop-dance sound. George was heavily into shooting up heroin at this point also, and said that he was sleeping under the mixing board during the recording of this album. Some of the tracks would take George days to finish.
Although From Luxury To Heartache was their least-selling album (less than a million copies), it's really not that bad at all. It's just a bad Culture Club album, and sounds nothing like their hits "Karma Chameleon" and "Miss Me Blind".
Most of the material is still top-notch, and the LP also featured a couple other singles, "God Thank You Woman", and "Gusto Blusto". "Heaven's Children" was scheduled to be a follow-up (and final) single, but was cancelled. Even Helen Terry, who I consider the 5th member of Culture Club, isn't present as much as on previous albums. Jocelyn Brown assisted with the backing vocals.
Curiously, when the Culture Club albums were remastered and reissued a couple years ago, From Luxury To Heartache went ignored, and hasn't been in print in the USA since it was first released. I had to get my CD of FLTH imported/special ordered, which includes 3 bonus remixes from their 12" club singles ("Move Away", "God Thank You Woman" and "Sexuality").
From Luxury To Heartache is my personal favorite Culture Club album, and was musically one of their best. But tell that to the top 40 pop crowd. It would be nice if Virgin Records would remaster this forgotten gem, as it's getting harder to find, and apparently, more expensive.
****/*****
Listen to WORK ON ME BABY from FROM LUXURY TO HEARTACHE:
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