It’s basically Paul Weller shedding the clumpy mantle of being a spokesman for a generation (man) and having a bit of a lark. While they may not have had the chart-topping success of The Jam – the only top spot occupant was their magnificent 1985 album Our Favourite Shop – in some ways this relaxed worry-free agenda allowed the group to excel in roaming down more eclectic avenues. The young idea was still very much in evidence, but rebooted to navigate the increasingly shinier and brasher waters of the eighties pop landscape. No longer standing on the scaffolding because they were about shock and young adults, yet far more forthright in an era of Thatcherism, the Miner’s Strike and becoming the leading light in Red Wedge. They were more political than The Jam – more insightful, angrier, artier, scathing, cosmopolitan, European and fun. However, they took it all very seriously. Romping around stroking each other’s ears in videos, photoshoots with Boy George, looking a bit narked on Band Aid and out of place at Live Aid, making films such as Jerusalem (the wonky pop film that makes Pet Shop Boys’ It Couldn’t Happen Here seem quite straightforward). Maybe it was because Weller and cohort Mick Talbot – the organist who’d done time in Merton Parkas and Dexys – weren’t seen as taking it quite so 4 Real as some would’ve liked. So maybe that’s why The Style Council were considered not as ‘real’ or taken as seriously, which is a cobblers take, quite frankly. One more time for those at the back – it’s Not. But there’s more chance of The Beatles reforming than The Jam. That, even now, Weller gigs are populated by a small portion of balding feather-cutted gents bussed in from the hamlet of Modley Mod and underestimating the slimming powers of their Fred Perry tops, patiently letting Paul ‘get this weird experimental stuff out of his system’ while hoping for a run through of Jam toe-taps, shows the level of passion there still is out there. If there’d been helplines for such a thing, there’d no doubt have been tales of weeping mods and soul boys dialling in to express their distress. A band so significant that their entire catalogue re-charted after their demise, and one of the few to juggle imported releases clogging up the chart between the release of official numbers. The Jam clocked up a staggering array of hits, including four number ones – three of which entered that position on their first week – something The Beatlesonly managed once. That’s facts.ĭispensing of a band that meant so much at the height of their fame was a gamble, but also utterly punk. That might have pleased the faithful, but you know that Paul Wellerwouldn’t have the status or respect he has now if he’d milked it. Well maybe they could have, but the wheels would have long come off by the middle of the decade, the number ones would have dropped off, and a lowering of standards would’ve been par for the course as the audience and venues got more selective. The album was released in March 1989 around the time of the band's split to positive reviews and reached number 3 in the UK Album Chart.In praise of The Style Council: Ian Wade reviews the new compilationįirst up, let’s enjoy some context: The simple fact of the matter is that The Jam couldn’t last. The single was released as a new song from this album. " Promised Land", a non-album single from 1989, was from the sessions for the band's Modernism: A New Decade album, recorded in 1989 but unreleased due to Polydor's demands (this album was released instead) and not released until 1998. Other photographs from the session were later used for Here's Some That Got Away and Greatest Hits. The album cover is a photograph showing all four members taken in 1987, an outtake from the photo session producing the US album cover to The Cost of Loving. However, the two compilations have different track listings in that Singular Adventures generally features full length versions, alongside some album tracks, is not run in chronological order and contains two less songs. Subtitled Greatest Hits Vol.1, there was never a 'Volume 2' although other Style Council singles albums have been released, such as Greatest Hits in 2000. The Singular Adventures of The Style Council is the first greatest hits album by the Style Council, released in 1989. The Singular Adventures of The Style Council, Greatest Hits Vol.1
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