Released 16 March 1984 Artist The Style Council | Length 43.57 Release date 16 March 1984 | |
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Recorded October 1983 to January 1984 Genres Pop music, Jazz, Soul music, New wave Similar The Style Council albums, New wave albums |
The style council caf bleu full album 1984
Café Bleu is the official debut album released by the English band The Style Council. It was released on 16 March 1984, on Polydor Records, produced by Paul Weller with Peter Wilson. It followed the compilation Introducing The Style Council, which was released only in the Netherlands, Canada and Japan. The album was mainly recorded at Solid Bond Studios (owned by Weller) except for the strings which were recorded at CBS.
Contents
Café Bleu was renamed My Ever Changing Moods in the United States to capitalise on the success of that single. Café Bleu included a large number of extra musicians, known as Honorary Councillors, including Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt from Everything but the Girl. The album represented a huge shift away from Weller's previous group The Jam and towards incorporating his favoured elements of classic soul, jazz and rap.
It was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Critical reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic later gave the album four and half out of five stars and wrote that "Café Bleu was one of their better efforts, but it indicated the group's fatal flaw -- a tendency to be too eclectic and overambitious". Also noting that "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."
Track listing
All Songs Written By Paul Weller, except where noted.
- "Mick's Blessings" (Mick Talbot) - 1:15
- "The Whole Point of No Return" - 2:40
- "Me Ship Came In!" - 3:06
- "Blue Café" - 2:15
- "The Paris Match" - 4:25
- "My Ever Changing Moods" - 3:37
- "Dropping Bombs on the Whitehouse" (Weller, Talbot) - 3:15
- "A Gospel" - 4:44
- "Strength of Your Nature" - 4:20
- "You're the Best Thing" - 5:40
- "Here's One That Got Away" - 2:35
- "Headstart for Happiness" - 3:20
- "Council Meetin'" (Weller, Talbot) - 2:29
Personnel
Songs
1Mick's Blessings1:19
2The Whole Point Of No Return2:43
3Me Ship Came In!3:07