Our Favourite Shop

Our Favourite Shop is the second album from the band The Style Council. The majority of the album's material was released (with different sequencing and packaged in an entirely different cover design) in the USA as Internationalists by Geffen Records.

Lyrical targets include racism, excessive consumerism, the effects of self-serving governments, the suicide of one of Weller's friends and what the band saw as an exasperating lack of opposition to the status quo. All of this pessimism is countered with an overarching sense of hope and delight that alternatives do actually exist -- if only they can be seen. The album contained the Top 10 singles "Shout To The Top", which peaked at #7 in the UK, and "Walls Come Tumbling Down!", which reached #6 in the UK.

The contained musical styles are also far-ranging. Soul, rap, jazz and rock stylings all occur on the album.

[edit] Track listing

Original UK tracklisting

"Homebreakers"
"All Gone Away"
"Come to Milton Keynes"
"Internationalists"
"A Stones Throw Away"
"The Stand Up Comics Instructions" *
"Boy Who Cried Wolf"
"A Man of Great Promise"
"Down in the Seine"
"The Lodgers (or She Was Only a Shopkeeper's Daughter)"
"Luck"
"With Everything to Lose"
"Our Favourite Shop"
"Walls Come Tumbling Down"

US Tracklisting (released as Internationalists)

"Homebreakers"
"All Gone Away"
"Come to Milton Keynes"
"Internationalists"
"A Stones Throw Away"
"Boy Who Cried Wolf"
"A Man of Great Promise"
"Down in the Seine"
"The Lodgers (or She Was Only a Shopkeeper's Daughter)"
"Luck"
"With Everything to Lose"
"Shout to the Top!" (USA Mix)
"Walls Come Tumbling Down"

Australia/New Zealand Tracklisting

"The Big Boss Groove"
"All Gone Away"
"Come to Milton Keynes"
"Internationalists"
"A Stones Throw Away"
"With Everything to Lose"
"Walls Come Tumbling Down"
"A Man of Great Promise"
"Down in the Seine"
"The Lodgers (or She Was Only a Shopkeeper's Daughter)"
"Luck"
"Boy Who Cried Wolf"
"Our Favourite Shop"
"Shout to the Top!"

Most countries (except for the original UK pressing) omitted the track "The Stand Up Comic's Instructions" as it was deemed that the lyrics were racist. The guest vocalist was British comedian Lenny Henry