Style Council Cafe Bleu

Style Council's first proper album Cafe Bleu was one of their better efforts, but it indicated the group's fatal flaw – a tendency to be too eclectic and overambitious. Amidst the lazy jazz instrumentals, many of them courtesy of Mick Talbot, Paul Weller inserted several solid soul-tinged pop songs, including "My Ever Changing Moods," "Headstart for Happiness," "You're the Best Thing," and "Here's One That Got Away." However, that doesn't excuse the rap experiment, "A Gospel." The album was later released with a slightly different running order as My Ever Changing Moods in the U.S.; the American edition included the U.K. hit "A Solid Bond in Your Heart".

Released in 2013 through Universal U.K., Classic Album Selection is a sharp, no-frills box set that contains the original U.K. versions of the Style Council's Introducing the Style Council (1983), Café Bleu (1984), Our Favourite Shop (1985), The Cost of Loving (1987), Confessions of a Pop Group (1988), and Modernism: A New Decade (recorded in 1989 but not released until 1998).

After leaving one of punk rock's all-time greatest bands, Paul Weller took things in a very different direction with the Style Council, which led to a wave of groans and moans from Jam loyalists who hung on Weller's every lyric. But steer away from the sneers and jeers and there are more than a few selections that Style Council performed that match those of the Jam…