by Stephen Thomas Erlewine 　　If The Cost of Loving was a thoroughly mediocre affair, Confessions of a Pop Group was flat-out bad, without a single like "It Didn't Matter" to redeem its indulgences. Throughout the album, Weller engages in some of his most pretentious and mean-spirited lyrics but they are no match for the music he's written, which ranges from self-important jazz-pop fusions to an orchestral suite that finishes the album. The result was bad enough to leave him without a record contract in the U.K., where he was considered a god just eight years earlier.