The eponymous debut. I've listened to this through from "Uh Huh, Oh Yeh" to "Kosmos" a couple times, and this is all really solid, although nothing really grabbed me, until I reached the final track "Kosmos", which is I think what I wanted most from the Style Council, and never got: a 5 minute song that takes it's time, with no gimmicks, no rap, no pontification or artsy piano pretensions. It's just a great song. But what I don't hear is an obvious single. "Amongst Butterflies" is a fun nostalgic look back at fleeting summer days, and finding spirituality in nature, which comes a bit out of left field, and it breaks down with some really cool jazzy saxophone, courtesy of Jacko Peak; in fact, the whole second side has a trippy, spacey feel, which is probably what I come back to most here. And again, Steve White is an amazing drummer. His rim-shot and snare work is just so crisp.
Waiting your time, finding the space, to be what'cha wanna be
Well just be!
Or the past will take you, keep you from the truth
As bitterness rises from the ashes of your youth!
Probably my favourite song from the album, "Bitterness Rising" reminds me a lot of a couple of the jams from the Stone Roses' Second Coming, and I think this is also my biggest complaint about this album. The music is great. The lyrics are okay, very nostalgic, and I love the lift-off countdown in "Kosmos" and subtle touches like that, but I really wish many of these songs were as long as "Kosmos", so the band gets more time to wind out.
Really great band playing. I suppose there wasn't a lot of opportunity to jam out live in the studio with Paul playing bass and guitar on most tracks. It's easy to get distracted by the lyrics, which are good.
This has the bones of a really good drum and bass album. It kind of reminds me of the Happy Mondays album Bummed... it's going somewhere, there's a direction there, but when some of the songs from the album were remixed, this became the future direction of the band.
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