FEATURE:
A Buyer’s Guide
PHOTO CREDIT: Nicole Nodland
as prolific as Paul Weller. The former lead of The Jam and The Style Council has had a rich and busy solo career. He released the phenomenal On Sunset this year, and he has announced the release of his next album, Fat Pop (Volume 1), for next year. It seems he is in the most productive form of his life right now! It is always great having Paul Weller music in the world, as he seems to get better and better with every album. To celebrate the legend, this A Buyer’s Guide collates his four essential albums; the underrated gem that you need to investigate; his latest studio album – in addition to a good book that makes for a good companion. Here is the essential work from a musician who…
I have huge respect for.
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The Four Essential Albums
Wild Wood
Release Date: 6th September, 1993
Label: Go! Discs
Producers: Paul Weller/Brendan Lynch
Standout Tracks: Sunflower/Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)/Hung Up
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=80396&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/10Yg6lPdGtqdF6nj4yTesC
Review:
“Paul Weller deservedly regained his status as the Modfather with his second solo album, Wild Wood. Actually, the album is only tangentially related to mod, since Weller picks up on the classicism of his debut, adding heavy elements of pastoral British folk and Traffic-styled trippiness. Add to that a yearning introspection and a clean production that nevertheless feels a little rustic, even homemade, and the result is his first true masterwork since ending the Jam. The great irony of the record is that many of the songs -- "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?," "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)" -- question his motivation and, as is apparent in his spirited performances, he reawakened his music by writing these searching songs. Though this isn't as adventurous as the Style Council, it succeeds on its own terms, and winds up being a great testament from an artist entering middle age. And, it helped kick off the trad rock that dominated British music during the '90s” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Wild Wood
Stanley Road
Release Date: 15th May, 1995
Label: Go! Discs
Producers: Paul Weller/Brendan Lynch
Standout Tracks: The Changingman/I Walk on Gilded Splinter/Out of the Sinking
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=80428&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6AchAV6b4UKi1fZK3Q1aWo
Review:
““I walk on gilded splinters” carries on in a similar vein with a focus on Weller’s guitar prowess and features Noel Gallagher on acoustic guitar, Weller himself famously contributes the guitar solo on “Champagne Supernova”. “You do something to me” is one of the most beautiful tracks Weller has ever recorded and finds him in fantastic voice, it contains a mesmerising solo and some great lyrics. “Woodcutters son” takes us back to more Jam territory mixed in with some Britpop lyricism with a guest contribution from Steve Winwood (Traffic, Spencer Davis Group)
“Time passes” and “Stanley Road” are both more stripped back affairs, the latter of the two reminiscent of Weller’s work with The Style Council as he mulls over his childhood in Woking, with its almost jazz piano intro. It is also one of the poppiest tracks on the record, showing the array of talents at Weller’s disposal and the number of styles he has incorporated into his music over the years.
“Broken Stones” has groove aplenty with its funky intro and remains one of the most recognisable tracks from the record for good reason it’s a fantastic song again with Wellers vocals front and centre.
Weller himself considers this one of his finest releases commenting that all the stars aligned on the making of this record and while has enjoyed considerable success as a solo act since, he has never scaled quite the same heights he did in the 90s peaking with this 95 masterpiece” – Words for Music
Choice Cut: You Do Something to Me
Wake Up the Nation
Release Date: 19th April, 2010
Labels: Island (U.K., E.U.)/Yep Roc Records (U.S.A.)
Producer: Simon Dine
Standout Tracks: Andromeda/In Amsterdam/Up the Dosage
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=243582&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7zYTrbchN1TIBEUM6X3eqx
Review:
“Occasionally his usually sure hand on the songwriting slips and it sounds unfinished, as if he started experimenting, then stopped without actually reaching a conclusion. Nevertheless, that seems a small price to pay for having this many ideas flying past you at a breathless pace: funk decorated with autoharp; chaotic, sprawling guitar topped with Jerry Lee Lewis piano; a Dusty Springfieldish ballad augmented by woozy, off-kilter strings; an instrumental influenced by Broadcast. The track 7&3 Is the Strikers' Name sees Weller returning to politics, albeit of an even less considered and nuanced variety than in the Red Wedge era, when he was wont to write things like "see how monetarism kills whole communities, even families". Here, he explores how republicanism would advance the egalitarian cause of a meritocratic democracy thus: "Them fuckers in the castles, they're all bastards, too." This clearly isn't going to win the Johan Skytte prize in political science, but there's something about the gusto of it – not to mention the fathomless layers of feedback beneath it – that's hugely exciting.
The latter is also true of Trees, a five-part suite that flails wildly from piano ballad to psychedelia to electronica to hoary soul and features Weller singing: "Once I was a man, my cock as hard as wood." It looks ridiculous on paper, and, in fairness, sounds pretty ridiculous coming out of the speakers, but the sheer conviction with which it's performed carries you along despite yourself, wearing the astonished expression almost all of Wake Up the Nation provokes. As the title of one instrumental has it, Whatever Next?” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: Wake Up the Nation
A Kind Revolution
Release Date: 12th May, 2017
Label: Parlophone
Producer: Paul Weller
Standout Tracks: Long Long Road/The Cranes Are Back/Satellite Kid
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1178759&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0mbzS8xzbJj3sK2n0g6nPh
Review:
“But 40 years after the release of the first Jam album, Weller -- who turns 59 later this month -- hasn’t gone completely gooey and sentimental on us. The snarling, angular art punk of “Nova” recalls Berlin-era Bowie. The bluesy strut of “The Satellite Kid” allows Weller to show the teeth of his earlier, more menacing Jam days. One of the more oddly satisfying tracks, “Hopper” -- an ode to legendary painter Edward Hopper -- is a fractured psych-pop gem that recalls Ray Davies at his most baroque. Weller’s incorporation of blues, punk, soul and British Invasion power pop all within the span of 10 tracks and 43 minutes keeps his healthy sense of eclecticism intact. With beautiful, ambitious albums like the moodily psychedelic Heliocentric and the sprawling, conceptual 22 Dreams, Weller has experienced a few minor moments of self-indulgence, but on A Kind Revolution he manages to rein it all in quite admirably.
With a long, varied career that’s managed to dip into nearly every conceivable style with great ease, Weller insists on looking forward (don’t count on a Jam reunion happening, ever), with his music taking more and more chances and conceding less and less to the whims of the industry. A Kind Revolution is a vital, confident new entry in the catalog of a man who could very easily retire but still has too much music to share” – PopMatters
Choice Cut: Nova
The Underrated Gem
As Is Now
Release Date: 11th October, 2005
Label: Yep Roc Records
Producers: Paul Weller/Jan ‘Stan’ Kybert
Standout Tracks: Come On / Let's Go/Here's the Good News/Savages
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=80530&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/64NotyzBKMHzqRu0LRElUm
Review:
“A year on from his covers album, the Modfather returns with his first new material in three years, and even sceptics will acknowledge it as a return to form. True, not everything matches the bouncing bass and duelling guitars of 'Blink and You'll Miss It' or the spry single 'From the Floorboards Up', but there are some great moments. 'Here's the Good News' is all Beatles modulations and 'Lovely Rita' piano; 'The Start of Forever' features fine picked acoustic guitars; and Weller lays the Surrey mockney on thick for the lively 'Come On/ Let's Go'. Not sure about the portentous piano plodders ('Pan' could almost be King Crimson) but the quirky interludes keep the pace going” – The Independent
Choice Cut: From the Floorboards Up
The Latest Album
On Sunset
Release Date: 3rd July, 2020
Label: Polydor
Producers: Paul Weller/Jan Kybert
Standout Tracks: Baptiste/Village/Earth Beat
Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1765601&ev=mb
Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1waaO5SrI0BdKtdR9YZLRu
Review:
“On Sunset finds Paul Weller returning to Polydor Records, the label both the Jam and Style Council called home back in the 1980s. Polydor and Weller parted ways after he delivered Modernism: A New Decade in 1989, an excursion into house music that the label deemed too uncommercial at the time. Ironically, On Sunset finds Weller picking up some of the threads left hanging by Modernism, not by reviving the big beat of house music but rather delving deep into soul-rock that looks forward and backward in equal measure. Reuniting with Jan Kybert -- the collaborator who co-wrote and co-produced 2015's Saturns Pattern but largely sat out its 2017 sequel, A Kind Revolution, and didn't appear at all on 2018's True Meanings -- Weller pushes himself into new textural territory, adhering to his love of soul, '60s rock, and folk yet assembling the parts in unpredictable fashions. All this is apparent from the moment the cool electronic groove underpinning the opening "Mirror Ball" starts fracturing into space, losing its rhythm and melody as it enters the stratosphere. A few other songs perform a similar trick -- particularly those like "More," which seem to stretch out across the horizon -- but that fluid sensibility enlivens the leaner tracks, most of which arrive on the second half of the album. As the songs grow tighter, Weller indulges in a few familiar obsessions -- pastoral folk vies with psych-pop in the tradition of Steve Marriott -- but everything is cloaked in a glassy, reflective sheen, one that can sound progressive or electronic or traditional depending on perspective. The ever-changing sound exists largely on the surface, not the songs themselves, as they're sturdy, winning tunes that find Weller in an appealing troubadour mode. What's different about On Sunset is that expansive hybrid of electronic and R&B, a fusion colored by just enough experimentation and craft to make the album feel fresh and distinctly belonging to Weller” – AllMusic
Choice Cut: On Sunset
The Paul Weller Book
Suburban 100 (Paperback)
Author: Paul Weller
Publication Date: 2nd September, 2010
Publisher: Cornerstone
Synopsis:
“This edition of Suburban 100 includes new lyrics from the critically acclaimed albums, 22 Dreams and Wake Up the Nation, which has been nominated for the Mercury Music Award.
Paul Weller first burst onto the national music scene with The Jam in 1977 and was quickly marked apart from his contemporaries as a brilliant lyricist. In a writing career that has now spanned three decades, his songs have been acclaimed, imitated and loved by many.
Suburban 100 - the first selection of Paul Weller's lyrics - draws on songs written for The Jam, The Style Council and solo releases that, together, tell stories of life and love, rage and romance. The youthful frustrations of small-town life that fuelled Weller's early writing is palpable, as is the angry but poignant response to Thatcher's Britain. His lyrics, rooted in English suburban culture, explore the hopes, dreams and crashing disappointments of ordinary people. They also revel in the mystical beauty of the English country landscape and repeatedly revisit dreamlike childhood summers.
For the first time Paul Weller shares his reflections on his lyrics, offering candid insights to his writing process and the inspiration behind some of pop music's best loved songs. Suburban 100 reveals aspects of a famously private man” – Waterstones