Fridae

"You can never be too straight in terms of honesty, rather than sexuality.
I don't think it's important what you are...
I just think it's important that you're honest about what you are."
- Boy George commenting on his album title.

In the 80s, Boy George burst onto the scene with slaps of makeup and all dressed to distress. Pop icon-hood not withstanding, the karma chameleon has since gone down the slippery slope following a failed relationship with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss and a much publicized addiction to heroin.

But just when Ms Scary was about to throw in her embroidered Laura Ashley towel and lament the diminishment of the once bright popstar, Boy George has, over the last decade, successfully reinvented himself as a dance music guru and a club DJ. Still, despite his chequered career, Boy George remains twice as interesting as all the pop pretenders currently hogging the Top 20 put together.

With his latest release U Can Never B2 Straight, the once flamboyant Hare Krishna presents a collection of beautifully pared down acoustic tracks dwelling on desire and loss. Make no mistake, this is Boy George unplugged. And to drive home the point, there is even a picture of our dear boy sans makeup (the horror!) on the CD sleeve.

The album opens bombastically with the gay show-tune Ich bin Kunst (German for I Am Art) delivered in Marlene Dietrich-style, moderates into the blues-infused St Christopher and the flamenco inspired She Was Never He (which nearly prompted Ms Scary to reach for her castanets) before finally settling down to stripped down and uncluttered numbers which truly showcase Boy George's abilities as a singer-songwriter.

Although five of the tracks are directly lifted from 1995's Cheapness and Beauty (a gravely ignored album in Ms Scary's opinion), their back to basics treatment mesh perfectly with the rest of the album which shines with the vulnerable beauty of George's voice and Kevan Frost's outstanding accompaniment on guitar.

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As a whole, the album can be regarded as an audio alternative to his autobiography Take It Like A Man for it revisits themes such as coming out (Ich Bin Kunst), trans-sexuality (She Was Never He), internalized homophobia (Julian), straight-acting queers (Unfinished Business), familial rejection (Letter to School Friend and Wrong) and the ups and downs of gay relationships (St Christopher, Cheapness & Beauty, Fat Cat and If I Could Fly).

Most of the songs are therefore intensely and daringly personal, with several of them addressed (and dedicated) to former lovers. Yet they never fall into the trap of self-indulgent sentimentality as his characteristic wit and bracing venom would surface through biting indictments like "You're the dirt on my collar/You're the hole in my favourite shoe/You're the last, the last dying breath of love/You're the weight that I need to lose" (Fat Cat).

As a fitting closure, the hidden track Out Of Fashion shows that the singer may have lost his standing in the pop industry but he will never lose his sense of humor. A gentle self-deprecating commentary on the ephemeral nature of pop stardom, the track mocks the fact that he's been in and out of fashion so many times that he no longer gives a damn.

And that's a crying shame really. For with his beautifully expressive voice and his eloquent songwriting, this album truly deserves a place in the upper stratosphere of pop charts everywhere. Still, even if the new album fails to make a dent in the charts, George O'Dowd has once again proven why he will always remain in Ms Scary's heart, a "(l)aughing, screaming, tumbling queen/Like the most amazing light show that you've ever seen" (Il Adore).