Artist: The Style Council
Album: Confessions Of A Pop Group
Label: Polydor
Released: 20 June 1988
UK Album Chart: 15
US Billboard: 200: 174
Produced: Paul Weller, Mick Talbot
File Under: Paul Weller’s lost treasure.
Listening Status
Here’s where things get really interesting. An album which stays close to my heart! Purchased when released and still adore today.
Background
By 1988, Paul Weller had long since left the punk-infused mod revival of The Jam behind. The Style Council had dabbled in soul, jazz, house, and politics — and now? He was making a full-blown, genre-busting concept album split between baroque piano suites and slick white funk.
1987’s The Cost Of Loving (another underrated Weller gem) was met with dwindling sales and a bemused fan base. One year on and Weller went full on audience alienation. I loved it!
It was bold, brilliant, and (commercially speaking) a disaster. My kind of album!
An album of seriously contrasting halves which only adds to the genius…
Side One: The Piano Paintings
Is it as pretentious as it sounds? In a way yes but it’s wonderfully brave nonetheless.
Side One is as bold and out there as anything Weller has ever done. No wonder it baffled most his hardcore supporters in 1988, just six years after the release of the final Jam album, The Gift.
“It’s A Very Deep Sea” kicks things off, Mick Talbot’s sweeping piano intro signifying a serious statement of intent. It’s evident this is something completely different, even by The Style Council high eclectic standards.
Talbot takes centre stage. This is the Piano Paintings side of the album, and it’s unlike anything else Weller ever released before or since.
“The Gardener of Eden” is nearly ten minutes long, in three movements, and sounds like something George Martin might have arranged for a mid-’70s McCartney project. There are choirs. There are strings. There’s barely a snare drum in sight.
It’s sincere and strange and strangely moving.
“The Story of Someone’s Shoe” and “Changing of the Guard” drift between spoken-word, social commentary, and mood-piece. It’s art-school indulgence, sure — but done with real conviction.
Side Two: Confessions Of Pop Group
Side two is more straightforward. Actual songs.
“You’re the Best Thing” this is not — but lead single “Life at a Top People’s Health Farm” is pure Weller sass: funky, tongue-in-cheek, and full of the kind of vocal venom he hadn’t used since “Eton Rifles”. It only reached a disappointing number 28 in the charts.
“Why I Went Missing” brings in that jazzy, sophisti-pop sheen. Smooth, yes — but with just enough bite. Then there’s “How She Threw It All Away” often referred to as a lost Weller classic. Never even broke the top 40 when released as a single. It’s got the hooks, the melancholy, and one of Weller’s best vocal performances of the late ’80s.
“Confessions 1, 2 & 3” goes full chamber pop. Whilst the title track is over nine minutes of repetitive liquid funk which sounds wonderfully glossy.
Just for the record, in America the sides were flipped so you got confessions first, then the piano paintings.
Mad or Inspired?
At the time, nobody really knew what to make of it. Polydor didn’t push it. Radio didn’t bite. And the fans? Some were baffled. Others were bored. But, the odd person such as 19-year-old me, completely got it. And this played a lot during the heady second summer of love in 1988.
With hindsight, Confessions of a Pop Group is Weller’s most adventurous record of the ’80s — maybe of his career. It’s the sound of an artist refusing to play the game, right before the game dropped him completely.
Final Word
No singles that broke the top ten. No tour. Polydor refused to release the house-influenced follow-up, Modernism: A New Decade until 1998, long after the band split.
If you’re the kind of listener who loves a risk and enjoys seeing a pop artist try something totally outside the box, this album is well worth a revisit.
It’s not background music. It’s a statement. And in that sense, it might just be Weller’s most honest confession of all.
The Listening Log 
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