The Style Council - Cafe Bleu - Alternate Version (1984)

A few days ago, I posted a stray tracks album of 1983 and 1984 material from the Style Council, Paul Weller's main band during the 1980s. Despite having all that material on singles and such, there were enough songs for a studio album at the same time, 1984's "Cafe Bleu." In my opinion, this album was very hit or miss. So I've kept the good songs, removed the clunkers, and replaced them with other A- and B-sides from 1984.

As I mentioned in my write-up for the stray tracks album mentioned above (called "Long Hot Summer"), Weller was in an experimental mode with the Style Council, largely giving up on rock in favor of different kinds of soul and jazz. Unfortunately for the "Cafe Bleu" album, he included songs that didn't go well together. There were several jazz instrumentals that were a showcase for keyboardist Mike Talbot, but most veered on sounding like Muzak and weren't that memorable. So I've removed all but the two of those that I liked the best. (Specifically, I cut "Blue Cafe," "Me Ship Came In" and "A Gospel.") By (drastic) contrast, the album also included some experiments with heavy funk and rap that didn't fit with the mellow jazzy stuff whatsoever. I wouldn't mind those except a couple of them weren't very good either, and didn't even feature Paul Weller much ("Strength of Your Nature" and "Dropping Bombs on the White House"). So those got the axe as well.

With five songs removed, the remainder is strong, but short, at only 26 minutes. So I've added five more songs that I didn't include on the "Long Hot Summer" stray tracks album. Those five are at the end. Three are B-sides. "Shout to the Top" is an A-side that made the Top Ten in Britain. Also, "Big Boss Groove" was an excellent song that the band played in most of their concerts, and was included on their "Greatest Hits" album, so it's odd that it was only initially released as a B-side. The last of the five is "The Razor's Edge," a cover song that is unreleased because it was only played once on a TV show.

With five songs gone and five songs added, the album is now 44 minutes long. Personally, I think it's a very strong album like this. It's too bad Weller seemed to make particularly bad choices about what songs to include or leave off albums during his Style Council years.

UPDATE: On October 29, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. I added one song that I'd previously missed, "The Razor's Edge."

01 Mick's Blessings [Instrumental] (Style Council)
02 The Whole Point of No Return (Style Council)
03 The Paris Match (Style Council with Tracey Thorn)
04 My Ever Changing Moods [Acoustic Version] (Style Council)
05 You're the Best Thing (Style Council)
06 Headstart for Happiness (Style Council)
07 Here's One that Got Away (Style Council)
08 Council Meetin' [Instrumental] (Style Council)
09 The Big Boss Groove (Style Council)
10 The Razor's Edge (Style Council)
11 Shout to the Top (Style Council)
12 Ghosts of Dachau (Style Council)
13 Spring, Summer, Autumn (Style Council)

https://www.imagenetz.de/aMFNK

For the album cover, I simply used the official cover without any changes.