Modernism: A New Decade (1989/1998/2001)

Ironically enough, the dance-infused Balearic Style Council album that referenced a "new decade" was rejected by Polydor shortly before the Style Council were fired and disbanded, and went unreleased for... a solid decade. Like irony, modernism is a bitch.

I've been listening to this album a lot, and it's grown on me, a lot. It's reminiscent of a lot of music from this period, although I'd probably prefer to listen to the Happy Mondays, New Order, Revenge or Electronic. I'd probably rather prefer Bananarama, to be honest, but still. I'd put "Can You Still Love Me?" on a summertime mix, and the piano roll on "Sure is Sure"? It's really good, and Paul's crooning and howling has never sounded better. I want to give it to them that they discovered Chicago and UK Deep House many years before Bowie discovered Jungle.

Reminds me of George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice (1989) & Madonna's Ray Of Light (1998)... it *was* a really great decade. Also, fun fact about Peter Hook's first band after New Order: the name "Revenge" is a reference to George Michael's leather jacket in the video for "Faith".

In summary, The Cost of Loving is probably my favourite Style Council album (still), and I have discovered that my favourite song has to be "How She Threw It All Away" from Confessions (that flute), but my real takeaway from this experience is that if Modernism: A New Decade had come out in 1989 as planned, I probably would have listened to it A LOT, and been a better person for it. Different timeline completely.