Our Favourite Shop

Our Favourite Shop (released as Internationalists in the United States) is the second studio album by English band the Style Council.

The cover, depicting the band posing inside a shop, was designed by Paul Weller and British artist Simon Halfon.

Lyrical targets include racism, excessive consumerism, the effects of self-serving governments, the suicide of one of Weller's friends and what the band saw as an exasperating lack of opposition to the status quo.

They also took a more overtly political approach than The Jam in their lyrics, with tracks such as "Walls Come Tumbling Down", "The Lodgers", and "Come to Milton Keynes" being deliberate attacks on 'middle England' and Thatcherite principles prevalent in the 1980s.

"A Man of Great Promise" was Weller's eulogy to his school friend and early Jam member - Dave Waller - who had died from a heroin overdose in August 1982.

Included on the UK, US, and Canadian pressings, most countries omitted the track "The Stand Up Comic's Instructions"[4] as it was believed that its ironic satire of racist attitudes would be misunderstood.

"[14] Retrospectively, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that Our Favourite Shop "was still quite eclectic, but it didn't seem as schizophrenically diverse as Café Bleu", praising it as a "more cohesive and stronger" album.