The style council shout to the top6/30/2023 ![]() The video, however, is another story, one that only reinforces the pain felt by die-hard Jam fans.įor a start, there's keyboardist Mick Talbot, something of a helpless "wally," as my lovely British wife might describe him. It's just a beautiful, breezy bit of music with an uplifting message, like a spirited bike ride down pleasantly empty, sunlit Manhattan avenues on a hot July afternoon. I mean, what the fuck happened? I think I practically spat up at my first hearing of "My Ever Changing Moods."īut, let's be honest, there is simply zero arguing with the brilliance of this single, effortlessly melding the Style Council's penchant for jazzy pop with Weller's stubbornly assertive delivery (you can take the man out of the punk band, but you can't take the punk out of the man). I mean, here was the man who'd written such incendiary barnstormers as "Eton Rifles," "In the City" and "An 'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" suddenly slipping on a pair of top siders and crooning some of the softest blue-eyed soul imaginable. I'd just graduated high school and - in my arguably narrow teenaged worldview - still regarded Paul Weller's defection from punky mod squad, The Jam, to the pointedly twee ranks of the Style Council as complete heresy. If I'm not mistaken, this single originally surfaced in the fall of 1984, but I don't believe I heard it (much less gave it a chance) until the Summer of 1985. Amazon U.K.Everyone has a list of what they consider perfect summer songs. Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council (Polydor/UMC, 2020)ĢCD: Amazon U.S. The set is available for pre-order in 2CD and 3LP formats, with an exclusive color variant available through the uDiscover Music Store. version of The Office), a professed "superfan" of the group. ![]() The compilation, remastered at Abbey Road Studios, features new notes by Weller, essayist Lois Wilson, and actor Martin Freeman (star of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy and the U.K. Long Hot Summers will be available from UMC October 30 - the same day a new documentary about The Style Council, featuring interviews with Weller, Talbot, White and Lee, will premiere on Sky Arts in England. The latter's mixed critical reception was followed by the experimental Confessions Of a Pop Group (1988) the following year's Modernism: A New Decade was rejected by Polydor Records, after which Weller called the group off for a solo career. Top 40 hit), 1985's chart-topping Our Favorite Shop and 1987's The Cost Of Loving. The group earned three straight gold records in England with 1984's Café Bleu (released in America as My Ever Changing Moods - the title track of which became a U.S. (Along with Billy Bragg and Jimmy Somerville, Weller was active in Red Wedge, a collective of Labour-sympathetic musicians working to drum up support against England's prime minister Margaret Thatcher.) But Weller's signature songwriting was still at the helm - as well as a growing political bent. Lee, Weller's work in The Style Council largely eschewed the punk leanings of The Jam for more overt New Wave, slick soul and sophisti-pop influences. Working with Dexys Midnight Runners keyboardist Mick Talbot, drummer Steve White and vocalist Dee C. Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council provides an extensive overview of Weller's work through the '80s after the dissolution of The Jam.The 37-track collection, available across 2 CDs or 3 LPs, includes a healthy mix of the group's biggest singles, album cuts, B-sides and two unreleased tracks: an extended version of 1984's "Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse" and a string-laden demo of the band's biggest worldwide hit, "My Ever Changing Moods." Ahead of a forthcoming documentary on the second famed band of Paul Weller's career, the revered British rocker has co-compiled a new collection devoted to The Style Council.
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