Following in the footsteps of such bands as Haircut One Hundred and ABC, Culture Club's sound is spry and romantic. What sets them apart musically is their seamless blending of salsa, dub and calypso with good old blue-eyed soul. With steel drums, timbales and bullfight horns brightening the tunes, Kissing to be Clever 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" and its promise: "I'll be your baby I'll be your score I'll run the gun for you An' so much more."

Lead singer Boy George (O'Dowd) may look like a cross between Brooke Shields and Lene Lovich, but he sounds like a cross between Gene Pitney and Kenny Loggins, his vocal "normalcy" playing against the provocative content of the material. Sexual domination and racial domination are recurring themes, producing a curious tension. Boy George has said that Culture Club means to represent all oppressed people, and though Kissing to Be Clever is not the most coherent statement on the subject, it certainly is one of the more seductive. Lifting the listener again and again, the beat does special service to the message–even when we don't quite know what that message is. (RS 388)

LLOYD SACHS