Kissing to Be Clever is the debut album by the English band Culture Club, released on 4 October1982 in the United Kingdom. It includes Culture Club's international breakthrough hit single, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", which reached number one in the band's native UK and the Top 10 of many charts around the world. The album has reportedly sold over 4 million copies worldwide, including over 1 million in the US where it has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
Overview
The album's first two singles were "White Boy", and "I'm Afraid of Me". But with the release of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", the band scored a global smash hit in over a dozen countries. The album spent 88 weeks on the US Billboard charts and reached its peak position of #14 in March 1983. The follow-up single, "Time ", became a US #2 and UK Top 3 hit. This song appeared on US versions of the album but not initially on the UK version. Another single was released in North America, "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", which became the group's third consecutive Top 10 single in the USA. This made Culture Club the first British band since The Beatles to have three Billboard Top 10 hits in the USA from a debut album. Kissing to Be Clever was remastered and re-released in 2003 on CD. This edition contains the song "Romance Beyond the Alphabet", which is the orchestral instrumental version of "Time, also included on Culture Club Collect – 12" Mixes Plus and its subsequent re-release Culture Club Remix Collection as "Time ". The 2003 release of the album has the restoration of the original colour cover which had been replaced by a black-and-white picture of lead singerBoy George on previous versions.
Reception
Reviews for Kissing to Be Clever have been generally positive. AllMusic's Lindsay Planer noted that it "was embraced by not only post-disco dance music enthusiasts, but also new wave listeners and pop fans as well." She also stated that the singles "provide accurate thumbnail sketches of what Culture Club were capable of pulling off musically." She concluded by saying: "From the light and buoyant Philly soul-inspired string arrangement to the effervescent and singalongable chorus, the melody foreshadowed a similar vibe that would carry over to their sophomore long-player, Colour by Numbers." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice wrote that "for all fashionability I think their hearts are in the right place". However, he stated that "their bland Caribbean rhythms move no muscles, and their confrontations with racial issues are rarely more than a phrase deep." Lloyd Sachs of Rolling Stone stated that the album "positively jumps, from the pleasure-seeking masochism of "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" to the fearful soul-searching of "I'm Afraid of Me" to the shady "I'll Tumble 4 Ya"". He further stated that " vocal "normalcy" against the provocative content of the material." He concluded that "the beat does special service to the message – even when we don't quite know what that message is."
