The set is available for pre-order in 2CD and 3LP formats, with an exclusive color variant available through the uDiscover Music Store. version of The Office), a professed "superfan" of the group. The compilation, remastered at Abbey Road Studios, features new notes by Weller, essayist Lois Wilson, and actor Martin Freeman (star of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy and the U.K. Long Hot Summers will be available from UMC October 30 - the same day a new documentary about The Style Council, featuring interviews with Weller, Talbot, White and Lee, will premiere on Sky Arts in England. The latter's mixed critical reception was followed by the experimental Confessions Of a Pop Group (1988) the following year's Modernism: A New Decade was rejected by Polydor Records, after which Weller called the group off for a solo career. Top 40 hit), 1985's chart-topping Our Favorite Shop and 1987's The Cost Of Loving. The group earned three straight gold records in England with 1984's Café Bleu (released in America as My Ever Changing Moods - the title track of which became a U.S. (Along with Billy Bragg and Jimmy Somerville, Weller was active in Red Wedge, a collective of Labour-sympathetic musicians working to drum up support against England's prime minister Margaret Thatcher.) But Weller's signature songwriting was still at the helm - as well as a growing political bent. Lee, Weller's work in The Style Council largely eschewed the punk leanings of The Jam for more overt New Wave, slick soul and sophisti-pop influences. Working with Dexys Midnight Runners keyboardist Mick Talbot, drummer Steve White and vocalist Dee C. Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council provides an extensive overview of Weller's work through the '80s after the dissolution of The Jam.The 37-track collection, available across 2 CDs or 3 LPs, includes a healthy mix of the group's biggest singles, album cuts, B-sides and two unreleased tracks: an extended version of 1984's "Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse" and a string-laden demo of the band's biggest worldwide hit, "My Ever Changing Moods." Still, Marc Bolan and T Rex are where the heart of the soundtrack lie, and there's a great selection of tunes from him, including not just the omnipresent "Get It On" and "Cosmic Dancer," but the non-LP singles "I Love to Boogie," "Children of the Revolution," and the wonderful "Ride a White Swan." These great songs, when paired with Weller and "London Calling," make the soundtrack to Billy Elliot more infectious than the film itself.Ahead of a forthcoming documentary on the second famed band of Paul Weller's career, the revered British rocker has co-compiled a new collection devoted to The Style Council. Weller is represented by the Jam's "Town Called Malice" and two from the Style Council, "Shout to the Top" and "Walls Come Tumbling Down." It's a classic paired with two period pieces, and he comes off well all the same. It's a pair that doesn't seem to work well together on paper - the Slider and the Modfather share a fondness for Northern soul and nice clothes, but their boogie and sophisti-pop appear to be polar opposites - but it all works well here, since they're both terrific singles artists. There are a couple of stragglers here - Stephen Gately, Eagle-Eye Cherry, and the Clash have a song a piece - but for the most part, this is devoted to two great British pop stars, Marc Bolan and Paul Weller. But, if you can ignore that dialogue and concentrate on the music, you have a real nice disc of British pop. Like any soundtrack with aspirations of being hip, the soundtrack to the heart-warming Brit comedy-drama Billy Elliot is peppered with dialogue from the film - a tactic that was entertaining in 1993, when Reservoir Dogs popularized it, but it had lost its charm by 2000.
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