The Style Council – Our Favourite Shop (1985)

I've mentioned before my fondness for Paul Weller's post-Jam combo, The Style Council, despite the cynical scorn flung at them at the time, so I had no issues parting with pennies to pick up this, their second and no 1 hit album from 1985.

It's as enjoyable as I remembered it, with Weller indulging his soul boy ambitions, tempered by keyboardist Mick Talbot's jazz and swing influences. All with a political edge which is and was very much in line with my political thinking.

Opening with the soulful Homebreakers (referring to the Thatcherite 'on your bike' approach to the young unemployed), there's then a bossa nova edge to All Gone Away, followed by the bouncy single Come To Milton Keynes.

Internationalists is a full on rocking manifesto, before A Stone's Throw Away, a simple ballad for just Weller and string quartet, which sort of works - just. Lenny Henry guests for the mostly spoken Stand Up Comedian's Instructions, and that's followed by a break from the politics in the gentle single Boy Who Cried Wolf.

I find A Man Of Great Promise a little throwaway, but the Gallic feel of Down In The Seine perks things up and it's followed by the perky, funky soul feel in The Lodgers.

Luck is probably the low point of the album, another soul-style which doesn't quite work, but it's quickly back on form on With Everything To Lose (a reworking of which appeared on the Absolute Beginners soundtrack as Have You Ever Had It Blue), then the title track, a Talbot Hammond organ tune, very 1960s, before the original album comes to a crashing finish with the anthemic Walls Come Tumbling Down.

The single, Shout To The Top completes this CD reissue, somewhat dulling the powerful effect of the original climax - a recurring theme with bonus tracks on CD reissues.

But this is a fine listen, full of great tunes. I can see why many Jam fans at the time were lukewarm about this Weller incarnation, but enough time has passed to reconsider. Anyway, it's nothing like as patchy as his solo career.

Link to album tracks

4* - a much better album than its detractors would have you believe, even if it feels preachy and naive at times