The Style Council
Our Favourite Shop

THE REVIEW

The Style Council has always carried themselves with a certain style in the '80s, and surely this album is the most successful work of the Talbot-Weller duo. On one hand, they had disappointed those who were tied to the wild punk-wildly beat evolutions of the Jam, but on the other, they gained followers among those who enjoyed the jazz-swing mood in English rock music of that era. What a time! Among Everything But the Girl and Working Week, it was a real treat: pomaded strumming guitars merged with doo-wop-dance rhythms and whoop whoop choruses, competing with the wave lace of Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. But then why "Our Favourite Shop" and not "Eden" or "Café Bleu" by the same Style, deserves the podium? Perhaps because this seems like a more cohesive album in its stylistic intentions with "heavy" lyrics that make me think of this work as the Style Council's Sandinista!

And it starts with "Homebreakers", literally because of the little voice in an airport hall: a track to move your shoulders and chest out like a true mod - beautiful! - with trumpets prominently featured and black choirs accompanying Paul in the soliloquy. The plane takes off and arrives the tropical calypso of "All Gone Away" with horns competing with marimbas and triangles.

Come take a walk upon these hills,
And see how this monetarism kills...

And we go to Milton Keynes with "Come to Milton Keynes", bouncy rhythm and keyboards melting over the theme of mental health in England, sweetly prosodized by Mr. Weller. A major piece is "Internationalist" (watch out if you're driving!) with beat rhythms full of grit and anger screamed in the trumpets, here we've invented garage-swing or something like that - gentlemen and ladies, BE - AU - TI - FUL! The strings frame the country sermon against torture and the violation of civil rights by Father Paul in "A Stones Throw Away", a light and mournful ballad that contrasts with the black fervor of "The Stand Up Comic's Instructions" woven with funky nervousness and a bit below average compared to the rest of the album.

"Boy Who Cried Wolf" is a shadowy pop song with a melody flavored with Spandau Ballet, well-suited for dinner in the depths of winter when we reflect on the transience of human emotions. But let's not dwell too much because the bells introduce "A Man of Great Promise", the sparkling Style marrying the Swing Out Sister in the desecrated church of "Down in the Seine" where a charming accordion-like keyboard follows the ceremony. The dances and rooms of the inn of "The Lodgers" open up, the finest pop ever - and bravo Talbot! - with all the little choruses working perfectly. "Luck" holds its own even if it shows a bit of wear, but it doesn't matter because the Style serves us more good dishes like the soul with a rumba rhythm of "With Everything to Lose" with a flavor too exotic for the cold English lands but good inside an Argentine restaurant. Just enough time for the rosolio of the instrumental "Our Favorite Shop" - watered-down Farfisa in prominent Spanish polyrhythms - and we are back on "Internationalist" turf with the soul-beat roll of "Walls Come Tumbling Down" - Masterpiece of Post-Work for the working masses - that would make even Fassino tap his feet. Shoulders back to the rhythm and chest out because with "Shout At The Top" you dance with a style that is Style Council at its best.

An overtly political album, decidedly correct. Still today, Our Favourite Album by the Style Council.