Café Bleu (1984)

Café Bleu is the debut studio album by the English band the Style Council. It was released on 16 March 1984, on Polydor Records, produced by Paul Weller with Peter Wilson. It followed four non-album singles in the UK, the first three of which (and their B-sides) were released outside the UK as the album Introducing The Style Council in North America, Australasia, Japan and some European countries. The album was mainly recorded at Solid Bond Studios (owned by Weller) except for the strings which were recorded at CBS.

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. The album received mixed reviews on its release, but became the band's biggest success on the UK Albums Chart, spending 38 weeks on the chart. The singles "My Ever Changing Moods" and "You're the Best Thing" both reached the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart. The single version of "My Ever Changing Moods" is a different recording to the album version.

Café Bleu was renamed My Ever Changing Moods in the United States to capitalise on the success of the single of the same name, and featured a slightly different track listing.

Critical reception

Contemporary critics were divided. Sounds dismissed the record as "dispensable dross", while others were more favourable. In Smash Hits the album was given a 8+1⁄2 rating out of 10, Peter Martin writing: "Paul [Weller] clearly wants to win fans not on reputation but on musical worth. Me I never liked the Jam but this, c'est magnifique."

In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic found that Café Bleu, although being indicative of "the group's fatal flaw – a tendency to be too eclectic and overambitious", is nonetheless "one of their better efforts", praising Weller's "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.'"

Café Bleu was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Treble included it in a 2014 list of 10 essential sophisti-pop albums, saying that while it does not feature synthesisers 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."

Personnel

The Style Council

Paul Weller – vocals (2, 6, 9–12), guitar (2–4, 9–12), bass (3, 7, 13), synthesizer (9, 10), flute (13)

Mick Talbot – piano (1, 3, 5, 7, 12), Hammond organ (9, 11, 13), synthesizer (9, 10, 12, 13), brass sound (12), clarinet (13)

Steve White – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

Billy Chapman – saxophone (3, 7, 10)

Hilary Seabrook – saxophone (8, 12)

Barbara Snow – trumpet (3, 7, 8, 12)

Tracey Thorn – vocals (5)

Dee C. Lee – vocals (9, 12)

Ben Watt – guitar (5)

Chris Bostock – double bass (5), bass (11)

Peter Wilson – drum programming (8–10)

Dizzi Heights – rap (8)

Bobby Valentino – violin (11)

Technical

• Produced by Paul Weller and Peter Wilson
• Photography – Peter Anderson
• Cover design – Paul Weller and Simon Halfon