Our Favourite Shop

After a fall 2006 release date was cancelled, I held little hope that this Deluxe Edition of Our Favourite Shop would see the light of day - at least, not without being substantially butchered from the originally published track listing.I'm happy to say that the key extras are almost all included.Disc 1 features two extra tracks. First is the so-called "USA remix" of "Shout to the top!", which we've been stuck with since the 2000 reissue (it also appears on The Sound of The Style Council). This mix is far inferior to the original, thanks to a different drum track; since the original version was included on the original CD release, and treated as though it were part of the album, I see no reason why it should have been omitted. Universal partly makes up for this by including the instrumental version of the original as the second (and last) bonus track on disc 1. I say "partly" because its inclusion illustrates just how dreadful that "USA remix" really is.Disc 2 is the real reason any TSC aficionado should be buying this edition. All of the singles released in association with this album contained non-LP tracks. All of those tracks are here - including the club mixes of "The lodgers" and "Our favourite shop" from the "Come to Milton Keynes" 12-inch, and the live tracks that made up side B of the 12-inch of the rerecorded version of "The lodgers". (This includes "The big boss groove", which was originally reported to be the version from the Home and Abroad live album.)In addition to these b-sides, disc 2 includes the two demo tracks and "A casual affair" from the 1993 odds-and-sods disc, Here's Some That Got Away. AND, the original 12-inch version of the Council Collective single, "Soul deep", finially makes its first appearance on CD.Disc 2 is rounded out by four demos. "'Lodger'" has some dodgy harmony vocals, but, despite its roughness, has a little bit more soul than the album version. I could easily imagine someone like The O'Jays doing this one. The remaining three demos are not bad.So, as far as the musical content goes, this may be the best Style Council reissue yet. Replace that hideous "USA remix" of "Shout to the top!" with the original, and it's pretty much perfect.The overall packaging is typical for a TSC reissue. In other words, it looks good, but attention to detail is clearly lacking. The liner notes are better than usual, except that the writer constantly uses commas where semi-colons are more appropriate, making for some occasionally difficult reading. The track listing gets the parenthetical part of the title of "The Lodgers" slightly wrong (it should be "Or She Was Only A Shopkeeper's Daughter" - the original CD and the 2000 reissue both got it right). Finally, the copyright credits are way off - but I'll spare you the details.In short: Even with a couple of minor flaws, this is an essential disc.

This Style Council album was originally titled "Internationalists",but "Our Favorite Shop" sounds much better.Paul Weller wrote allthose manic Jam tunes from his hey days, of Lambrettas, Rickenbackerguitars and soft soul shoes. With a rousing shout he disbanded theJam in 1982. In 1985 he wrote Our Favorite shop with Mick Talbot,and moved away from the post punk revival. He went backwards (in someways)to finely arranged R&B, soul-based Muscle Shoal type horn section,andsomehow remained politically inventive.Even though in later years, the other two members of the Jam, bassistBruce Foxton, and drummer Rick Butler enged themselves with From the Jam;their music will never sound this good. Almost every track on Our FavoriteShop is full of solid musicianship and is extremely hard to fault. For aboy from Woking, Surrey England to mods and rockers to his naturalstance of dancing onstage (Live Aid 1985): Paul Weller has provedhimself to be a "worldwide" recognised talent.And in getting to suchstatus, he proved that sweat and hard work will result in positive rewards.

This was always my favorite Style Council album. Just hadn't got around to getting a CD copy from vinyl for all these years. I'm glad a waited as this deluxe edition has more songs and more outtakes than the actual album! No skimping on the pate here!The original album song order has been altered with Shout To The Top set as a bonus song and replaced with The Standup Comics Instructions. It doesn't finish there, after this the songs are out of order from the original release. Mr Weller must have had a rethink on how he wanted the album to sound. Personally I think the song that was put in there was pretty ordinary and should have been included with the extras.It's good to have the extra disc of outtakes and some live numbers. Definitely the way to go if you own it or not, is the pick of the bunch. Comes with an extra booklet in the sleeve with liner notes and photos of the band.

This is such a terrific cd, it brings back such a cool memory of being in a taxi, in egypt, ( we were driving down the dark street). I remember this really great music and I commented about the lack of headlights, and then he told me that in egypt they don't drive with their headlights on because of the glare of the headlights. I remember thinking wow! what a trip! then I commented about the music- when I got to my destination the driver told me that I could bring him lighters and ballcaps with ship insignia, for payment ( I was in the service at the time)- I also commented on the music. He gave me his card and I called him for a ride the next day and when I gave him the ballcap, he gave me a style council cassette. I don't have the cassette anymore, and I've tried to find the cd. [...]

I loved the Jam back in the day so was very curious about the new project. For Paul Weller, The Style Council was completely different but I truly loved the music they put out. Jazzy, with some funk and soul, great lyrics and such amazing composition, it holds up so well today because it the music is simply like nothing out there-before or since. Note for the US, "Our Favourite Shop" came out as "Internationalists" when it was originally released over here so if you're replacing the old album (as I am) this is the one you want. ENJOY!

This CD arrived seperately and was in a padded bag, so it was received in good condition. some previous purchases were pachaged in a non padded package and sustained some damage. Not worth returning, cost more than what they are worth.Several other purchases have just arrived in a padded bag and they were in good condition.

It's the eighties. I rent it but I didn't bought .now I'm buying it.

Best Council album IMHO.

1) There's a GREAT documentary on Amazon Prime called Long Hot Summers: The Story of Style Council, which I'd recommend watching. Seeing that made me want to revisit the music and expand my collection. You will probably feel the same after seeing that. Do you want full albums or just a hits collection?2) The band released a debut EP Introducing the Style Council (1983), followed by 4 proper albums: Cafe Bleu (1984), Our Favourite Shop (1985), The Cost of Loving (1987), and Confessions of a Pop Group (1988), plus some singles that were not on the albums. Their material changed by the 3rd full album, so most of their hits are from the first 3 releases (including this album). Their last 2 albums are also very expensive right now on Amazon, while the first 3 are regular priced.3) Our Favourite Shop is their first proper album of songs. Introducing the Style Council was only an EP (7 songs, 1 being an instrumental) and Cafe Bleu was a full CD (13 songs) but 5 songs are instrumentals. Our Favourite Shop has 15 songs and only 2 instrumentals.4) The original UK and US versions of this album were slightly different. The UK version had 14 songs, including the hit "Walls Come Tumbling Down". The US version removed "Our Favourite Shop" and "Walls Come Tumbling Down" and added the hit "Shout to the Top". This CD contains ALL the songs found on both versions.5) If you love Our Favourite Shop all the way through, you will likely also love Introducing the Style Council and Cafe Bleu. The the jazzy and R&B nature of their early material is really cool and the instrumentals are well done and usually as catchy as the songs. Their style and sound is similar enough on the first 3 releases.6) A 2-CD set called Long Hot Summers: the Story of Style Council, based on the documentary mentioned above was recently released that may be an even better CD to buy: it has 8 of the 15 songs from this CD, 5 of the 7 songs from Introducing the Style Council and 4 songs from Cafe Bleu, 3 songs from The Cost of Loving, and 4 songs from Confessions of a Pop Group. It has all of the songs found on the single CD collection Singular Adventures of the Style Council, so you'll get all the non-album singles. And it has other rare songs and versions too (early / demo / extended versions). If you're looking for just one good Style Council collection that would likely be it.7) The sound quality on this and the Long Hot Summers CD stated above are both overly compressed, although not completely squashed. This may be true for all the newer and remastered Style Council CDs. My 2 older Style Council CDs are not compressed at all (although the sound could be louder on those CDs). I'm not a fan of compressed remasterings as it does change the original overall sound a bit and, while it sounds good when you have your volume low (background level), it doesn't sound so pleasing when raised louder. Unfortunately that has become the norm for the past few decades now.Conclusion (for myself):I'm very glad I bought this CD as I like it all the way through. Musically it's 5 stars but I deducted 1 star for the compressed remastering. I also ordered the Long Hot Summers collection, to get the singles "It Just Came To Pieces In My Hands" and the B-side "Spin Drifting", the tracks from Introducing the Style, and the songs "A Woman's Song" and "Changing of the Guard" which come from the last 2 albums (which I don't feel I need to get and are too expensive to buy now).

Thanks!

strange that I received this vinyl with noises and clicks on the first songs on side 2, I bought several albums of this same band here in amazon and I had no problems, but this turned wall painting, only graces, the customer who bought was frustrated and I you have to return the money to buy it, this universal recorder works so that all of its discs are low quality, here in Brazil it has always been frowned on since the time of phillips, because it put defective vinyl records on the market, as we have store ha over 40 years we received a lot of return that she did not accept backwhich turned tables for sale

I had the tape version of this long ago until I wore it out! Such great lyrics and subjects tackled - my idea of how music can inspire you to think and not just listen. Love the track 'Boy Who Cried Wolf'- if you like to dance this really makes you want to especially the instrumental bit, just don't play it when you are driving!! And how relevant are some of the words in this album to the situation in this country today. Weller has always been a great artist - this is one of his best in my opinion - but then again he has done so much good stuff, how can one choose!

I'm not sure why The Style Council and 'Our Favourite Shop' have such average reception by people- The Style Council advanced on the late-Jam-singles which nodded towards soul (The Bitterest Pill, Beat Surrender, Precious, Absolute Beginners, A Solid Bond in Your Heart- the latter found on 'Extras') Over several releases, The Style Council built an excellent pop-soul sound with political content and 'Our Favourite Shop' was their peak. Afterwards the records would become distinctly hit and miss, though probably not as dull as Weller's later solo-career which is largely a tribute act to Traffic...'Our Favourite Shop' continues the homoerotic-allusions made in that 'Brideshead'-nodding video to 'Long Hot Summer' (Weller & Talbot in front of a poster to 'Another Country') and uses then fashionable jazz (Sade, Working Week) alongside pop and soul. There are some great Weller-moments here - 'Come to Milton Keynes' remains one of the great protest-songs of the 1980s and deserves to be ranked alongside Robert Wyatt & 'Stone's Throw Away' is a bleak, strings-drenched example of dissent...There are hit-singles here - 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' is up there with anthems by The Jam, 'The Lodgers (or she was only a grocer's daughter)' slightly dated synthpop ('Boy Who Cried Wolf' suffers similarly)& this version includes the fine 'Shout to the Top' as a bonus-track. People will also note that 'With Everything To Lose' was re-recorded as 'Have You Ever Had It Blue?' for the flop film 'Absolute Beginners' in 1986...I'm surprised how well 'Our Favourite Shop' stands up, the irritating Lenny Henry-fronted track apart, and wonder why it isn't as feted as Weller's work before and after. 'Our Favourite Shop' a definite highlight of the British 1980s, and an album to rank alongside 'Rip It Up' (Orange Juice),'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels' (Dexys),'More Specials' (The Specials),'Waiting' (Fun Boy Three) & 'Rattlesnakes' (Lloyd Cole & the Commotions). & a bargain at this price...