I bought that album when it came out. Haven't heard it in a long, long time.

I LOVE this song!

Their work is great. Their film JerUSAleum is kinda weird though

Ace said:

Ditto. There are some great songs on it - Heavens Above, It Didn't Matter and The Cost Of Loving (the title track) - and Paul Weller was, with hindsight, to be commended for trying to make a provincial British version of Young Americans, BUT this album exposed a). what overreaching sounds like when the sinews snap and the bones drop out (Right to Go), the thinness of his voice (all the ballads), and the fact that he really didn't get Anita Baker and late 80's soul at all.

The thing I loved about the Weller of The Style Council was the almost perverse delight he took in pissing off the hardcore Jam fraternity. TSC was his Neil Young on Geffen period (an era I love, by the way). The music was frequently suberb and, I think, he wrote some of his greatest songs then.

I wish he'd carried on in the experimental vein in his solo career, but, once he found his way back to Stanley Road he embraced and held on to dullard, musically conservative idioms. His lyrics are also seriously crap nowadays too. I haven't bought one of his albums since the afore-mentioned Road. I probably won't again either.

I saw him play a club gig prior to the Stanley Road. 800 people max, tiny venue. It should have been thrilling. Instead it was boring as fuck.
[Edited 1/23/09 12:46pm]