release date: Jun. 20, 1988
format: digital
[album rate: 2 / 5] [2,22]
producer: Paul Weller, Mick Talbot
label: Polydor Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "It's a Very Deep Sea" - 2. "The Story of Someone's Shoe" - 7. "Why I Went Missing" - 8. "How She Threw It All Away" - 10. "Confessions 1, 2 & 3"
4th full-length studio album by The Style Council. After releasing Our Favourite Shop in '85 the band released a third album The Cost of Loving in '87, which in the discography of the band may be regarded a first low. I honestly didn't think they would continue much longer after that album, but this isn't an improvement from that. Technically, it's superior to anything they have released but it doesn't bring about anything new and sometimes it sounds more like an anachronism. With 'do-bi-doo' backing vocals, greasy slick harmonies that make one think of The Carpenters, and a strange but often use of marimbas... What is this, Mr. Weller? The New Manhattan Transfers? The pop soul and the originality has in many ways disappeared completely and what remains is a pastiche of pop or lounge when it's least daring - and then: when is lounge really daring?! This is below mediocre, and the album became the final studio album before the band split up in 1989. By then, a final album had been recorded prior to the disbandment; however, that fifth album wasn't released until 1998. Paul Weller and Dee C. Lee married in 1987.
The Cost of Loving proved to be a so far low but this one really hit rock bottom.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com 1 / 5 stars! ]
