Track Listing

1. You're The Best Thing
2. Have You Ever Had It Blue
3. Money Go Round
4. My Ever Changing Moods
5. Long Hot Summer
6. Lodgers
7. Walls Come Tumbling Down
8. Shout To The Top
9. Wanted
10. It Didn't Matter
11. Speak Like A Child
12. Solid Bond In Your Heart
13. Life At A Top Peoples Health Farm
14. Promised Land
15. How She Threw It All Away
16. Waiting
17. Have You Ever Had It Blue (2)
18. Long Hot Summer (2)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18945 in Music
• Released on: 1989-03-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
In retrospect, the Style Council has always been looked at as the (better part of a) decade that constituted Paul Weller's lost in the wilderness period, the time between his sharp, focused songs with the Jam and his more adult, reflective work as a solo artist. While it's undeniable that the period was marked by unevenness and experimentation, Weller and Mick Talbot's group chalked up their share of gems--it was just that for every "Long Hot Summer" there's "A Gospel"; for every "You're the Best Thing" and "My Ever Changing Moods" there's an entire album's worth of unreleased (except on a box set) house tracks that were probably better left unheard. But there's easily enough to fill a single disc, which is where The Singular Adventures of the Style Council comes in, rounding out the above singles with other favourites, including "Speak Like a Child", "Solid Bond in Your Heart", "Headstart for Happiness" and "How She Threw It All Away". In many ways, this "best of" foreshadows Weller's solo output: the best songs from the Style Council are those that are quiet and reflective; they feature breezy structures that let the songs breathe and shine through, here enhanced by bright synths and lounge-jazz arrangements rather than the Traffic-era guitar effects and classic keyboard sounds that would mark his later work.--Randy Silver

Customer Reviews

Great collection of songs
I know some of these songs from listening to a college/alternative radio station in the 1980s, such as "Have you ever had it blue?" and "Solid Bond in your Heart." After hearing some of the songs (mostly "My Ever Changing Moods") playing in the grocery store or at the mall, I wanted to hear the others. I found some great songs on this CD, ones that were never heard on the radio in America. The highlights of this CD are "Long Hot Summer" and "Speak Like a Child," which are the best. This is a great CD to put in the car and sing along while driving around. It beats most of what's on the radio today!

Some of Mr Weller's finest crafted songs...
Considered for quite some time to be the awkward & dated part of the Weller back catalogue, even the most hardened fan of the Jam or his post 1990 work has to acknowledge now, that the style council period not only contained some finely crafted songs (he performed 'Shout to the top' on his recent 22 dreams tour) but was in fact an essential part of his growth as a song writer.

Weller could never have written modern classics such as Changing man, Broken stones and Wild Wood without this period of experimentation and reflection with his future wife Dee c. Lee, Future long time collaborator Steve White on drums and Mick Talbot on the keys.

Songs included are Have you ever had it blue, Long hot summer, Wanted, Shout to the top, Speak like a child (the style council debut single), You're the best thing, and the glaringly autobiographical My ever changing moods are all here, and wrapped around them are other Style Council classics which are thankfully mainly from the Style Council's most prolific output between 1983 and 1987.

For the now low cost of purchasing the album, one can almost forgive the inclusion of the plodding watered down house music cover version of Promised Land (presumably included on the basis of chart success) as in the humble opinion of this reviewer this would struggle to qualify as a classic single from the Weller collection.

So here we have it, with the odd exception, this is a superb collection of the Modfather's Style Council back catalogue all in one place, and for some this collection will be investigation enough of his 80's output, but the fact that in retrospect the quality of the songs written during this period now stand up on their own, and are worthy of fresh interpretation by the man himself in his live set, says a great deal about the man and his music. If you are a Weller fan than you owe it to yourself to get a copy of this and hear where the song writing roots of his current Mod revivalist musical direction were formed. Enjoy.

Paul Weller- Musical Magician
What is it about Paul Weller? Everything he does is of a top quality standard, especially this album. This, to me, is the best album he has ever done. It includes many dancable tunes and catchy tunes, but also songs that still have alot of credabiblty 15 years on.