The Style Council The Complete Adventures Of The Style Council
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Given the blockbuster success of the Jam's exhaustive box set Direction Reaction Creation, perhaps it was inevitable that Polydor would give the Style Council a similar treatment, but the 1998 release of the five-disc box set The Complete Adventures of the Style Council was still a bit of surprise -- there never was much interest in their catalog following their 1990 disbandment. Fortunately, Polydor took a chance and assembled The Complete Adventures, a lavish box set containing all of the group's singles and albums, minus the live Home & Abroad but including the notorious unreleased 1989 record A Decade of Modernism, which the label allegedly rejected because it found Weller turning toward house music. As it turns out, A Decade of Modernism wasn't that far afield from what the Style Council was exploring from their inception, as the chronological running order of the set makes clear. The sequencing is a blessed occurrence, since it's easy to trace their development over the years. Instead of an aberration, the Style Council seems like a natural extension of the Jam's final record, The Gift, and every one of their subsequent records makes more sense than before. That doesn't mean the music is always compelling. No matter how interesting some of Weller's ideas were, they didn't always work, and he wrote way too many pompous, directionless songs to have The Complete Adventures rank with Direction Reaction Creation. (There are also too many Mick Talbot instrumentals, but that's another story.) For most listeners, including some serious Weller fans, the Style Council is best appreciated as a singles band, but for the dedicated, The Complete Adventures reveals that the Style Council, no matter how maddening they could be, were a group that continually reinvented themselves, occasionally making some remarkable music along the way
This is a great collection though not everything they did (some B-sides are missing). But whoever collated this was an idiot: eras blend over CDs which makes no sense. Nevertheless CDs 1-3.1 are excellent and CDs 3.2-5 are (for me) missable. If you are too young to have lived through the mid-1980s this is worth checking out just to see Weller's transition from angry young Jam man (early 80s) to soul boy with dance style (late 80s).
ReplyDeletejbinjapan
Always loved Paul and his journeys through styles. Think my favourite still is with the Jam though... although I do enjoy where he is now a lot. Thanks Aid00, great stuff!
ReplyDeleteThe Style Council were NEVER a patch on The Jam! (IMO) They did come up with some cracking tunes (Solid Bond, Lodgers, Walls Come Tumbling), but unlike The Jam, I LOVED everything they ever put out. Paul Weller is a god in my eyes. But like Tears For Fears sang. Kick out the style, bring back THE JAM!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for this though and everything else.
Nick
Bit like marmite , either love them or hate them, I never liked them much at first but as I got older appreciated them more, and can listen to a lot of stuff I couldn't stand back then, not a patch on The Jam though , can see what he was trying to do but didn't quite work, His solo stuff is much beter than this although I like Solid Bond, Speak Like a Child, Wanted and some other singles a lot
ReplyDeleteIf there is any chance you still have this album to re-upload, I would appreciate it very much. Thanks, Patrick
ReplyDeleteHello Patrick New Link Up & Running
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you very much, Patrick.
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