Culture Club: Colour By Numbers

1983
1. Karma Chameleon
2. It's A Miracle
3. Black Money
4. Changing Every Day
5. That's The Way (I'm Only Trying To Help You)
6. Church Of The Poison Mind
7. Miss Me Blind
8. Mister Man
9. Stormkeeper
10. Victims

Culture Club's Colour By Numbers is the first album I can remember purchasing ... ever. I had a small batch of 45s prior to that, but never a full album until the year I was 10. I saved up my allowance, badgered my mom into taking me to Record Bar in the mall, and bought this album.

Karma Chameleon was of course the big hit from this album & the reason I bought it, but as soon as I got it home, I feel in love with it all. There were other hits as well (Miss Me Blind, It's a Miracle, Church of the Poison Mind), but the non-singles were just a strong & my favorite track ended up being Black Money.

I remember every Sunday afternoon after church, my parents would take a nap, my brother would go out to play with friends, and I would put Colour By Numbers on the stereo & listen start to finish as I jumped on a small exercise trampoline. I did that every single Sunday for months.

I also never think of this album without thinking of my friend Will who bought me a Colour By Numbers poster because he knew I was so obsessed with the album. I remember his telling me how painfully embarrassed he was to buy it, but he knew I would love it. That was actually really touching & 25 years later, I still remember that he did that for me.