Confessions of a Pop Group by The Style Council

Confessions of a Pop Group, the Style Council's fourth studio album, came out on Polydor on 20 June 1988, and it's the sound of Paul Weller refusing to play nice. The Cost of Loving had been a critical flop and relations with the label had soured, yet Polydor still stumped up a hefty advance. Dee C. Lee became a full member during the sessions while drummer Steve White left, and engineer Jeremy "Jezar" Wakefield's two digital machines let Weller and Mick Talbot try things they never had before.

Side one, The Piano Paintings, drifts through jazz and classical colours with Erik Satie in mind; side two snaps back into upbeat funk. Weller's lyrics have never been angrier, bitter and socially conscious to the bone. With no hits and an odd promotional push, it stalled at 15 in the UK and split reviewers, but some later critics have hailed it as the band's best, and "How She Threw It All Away" is still held up as a lost Weller gem.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.