Café Bleu

Café Bleu
Studio album by The Style Council
Released	16 March 1984
Recorded	October 1983 to January 1984
Studio	Solid Bond Studios, London; string overdubs at CBS Studios, London
Genre	Pop jazz soul new wave
Length	43.57
Label	Polydor
Producer	Paul Weller Peter Wilson
The Style Council chronology
Introducing The Style Council (1983)Introducing The Style Council1983 Café Bleu (1984) Our Favourite Shop (1985)Our Favourite Shop1985
Singles from Café Bleu
"My Ever Changing Moods" Released: 1984 "You're the Best Thing" Released: 1984

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Café Bleu is the official debut album released by the English band The Style Council. It was released on 16 March 1984,^[2] on Polydor Records, produced by Paul Weller with Peter Wilson. It followed the compilation Introducing The Style Council, which was released only in the Netherlands, Canada and Japan. The album was mainly recorded at Solid Bond Studios (owned by Weller) except for the strings which were recorded at CBS.^[3]

Café Bleu was renamed My Ever Changing Moods in the United States to capitalise on the success of that single. Café Bleu included a large number of extra musicians, known as Honorary Councillors, including Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt from Everything but the Girl. The album represented a huge shift away from Weller's previous group The Jam and towards incorporating his favoured elements of classic soul, jazz and rap.

It was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic later gave the album four and half out of five stars and wrote that "Café Bleu was one of their better efforts, but it indicated the group's fatal flaw – a tendency to be too eclectic and overambitious". Also noting that "Amidst the lazy jazz instrumentals, many of them courtesy of Mick Talbot, Paul Weller inserted several solid soul-tinged pop songs, including "My Ever Changing Moods," "Headstart for Happiness," "You're the Best Thing," and "Here's One That Got Away."^[1]

In 2014, Treblezine included it in their list of "10 Essential Sophisti-pop Albums", saying that, while it does not feature synthesizers like the other albums on the list, "a mix of blue-eyed soul, jazz, and modern influences (for the time at least) made this record a sophisticated, progressive piece of pop."^[4]

Track listing

All Songs Written By Paul Weller, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Mick's Blessings" (Mick Talbot) – 1:15
2. "The Whole Point of No Return" – 2:40
3. "Me Ship Came In!" – 3:06
4. "Blue Café" – 2:15
5. "The Paris Match" – 4:25
6. "My Ever Changing Moods" – 3:37
7. "Dropping Bombs on the Whitehouse" (Weller, Talbot) – 3:15

Side two

8. "A Gospel" – 4:44
9. "Strength of Your Nature" – 4:20
10. "You're the Best Thing" – 5:40
11. "Here's One That Got Away" – 2:35
12. "Headstart for Happiness" – 3:20
13. "Council Meetin'" (Weller, Talbot) – 2:29

Additional track listing

Personnel

• Paul Weller – vocals, guitar
• Mick Talbot – keyboards, piano, Hammond organ
• Steve White – drums, percussion
• Billy Chapman – saxophone
• Barbara Snow – trumpet on "A Gospel" and "Headstart For Happiness"
• Randy Anderson – guitar
• Tracey Thorn – vocals on "The Paris Match"
• Chris Bostock – double bass on "The Paris Match", bass on "Here's One That Got Away"
• Ben Watt – guitar on "The Paris Match"
• Dizzy Hites – rap on "A Gospel"
• Hillary Seabrook – saxophone on "A Gospel" and "Headstart For Happiness"
• Dee C. Lee – vocals "Strength Of Your Nature" and "Headstart For Happiness"
• Bobby Valentino – violin on "Here's One That Got Away"
• Pete Wilson – drum programming on "A Gospel" and "Strength Of Your Nature"

References

External links

• Café Bleu (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• "Café Bleu" at discogs