Confessions of a Pop Group by The Style Council

Confessions of a Pop Group is the fourth full-length studio album by English sophisti-pop band The Style Council, released 20 June 1988 by Polydor. After the critical failure of The Cost of Loving (1987), tensions between Polydor and lead singer Paul Weller intensified, but Polydor paid Weller a hefty advance for the recording of Confessions. Backing vocalist Dee C. Lee became an official member during the sessions, while drummer Steve White left the group. The sessions were engineered by "Jezar" using two 24-track digital recorders, which allowed the group to experiment in ways they had not previously engaged before. Often seen as the band's most diverse and experimental album, Confessions is split into two sides, the first side (The Piano Paintings) featuring pieces inspired by jazz and classical music, and the second side (also titled Confessions of a Pop Group) featuring a more familiar, upbeat funk sound. The stylistic differences between the two sides is an idea not unlike that employed on the first record Café Bleu. Its usage of suites has led some to consider it similar to a concept album. Weller was inspired by numerous artists on the album, including composer Erik Satie and The Beach Boys, and his socially conscious lyrics on the album are unusually vitriolic and bitter. Each song on the album is accompanied in the liner notes by a painting by Dan Davies. With no hit singles and a bizarre promotional strategy, Confessions was a relative commercial failure for the band, only reaching number 15 on the UK Albums Chart. The album received mixed reviews, with some citing its ambitions as successfully and others feeling they were self-indulgent. While some critics think lowly of the album today, the album has seen numerous reappraisals, with some critics posing it as the band's best album and as one which captured the mood of late 1980s Great Britain. Weller continues to think highly of the album. It has been re-released several times. "How She Threw It All Away" and "Why I Went Missing" are often cited as lost Weller classics, having not been played live since the early 'rebirth' of Weller's solo career (around 1990/91).