BBC Review
This sounds better today than it ever did.
Chris Roberts 2009-11-10
To many, Paul Weller is the revered Modfather, the heart of the hallowed Jam, his decades of earthy rock and blues a monument to keeping it ‘real’ with amplifiers, sweat, and no nonsense. To others, he is a flat, bloke-ish example of what turgid monotony ensues when a talented musician chickens out of straying from his roots.
Despite apparently wishing to be anything but an enigma, he is one. How could the institution so admired by Noel Gallagher ever have detoured into something as literate, romantic and camp as The Style Council? That seems now to have been a collective dream we had, as if the gorgeous, soulful Long Hot Summer and Paris Match were exotic 80s fantasies, born of over-vivid imagination.
Last year’s 22 Dreams hinted that he, too, had a vague recollection that said inspired phase actually did happen. Many of those dreams were more Curtis Mayfield than curt grump-rock. They let the air in. The re-release of his 1992 solo debut album, then, is timely, reminding us that he does delve into riskier reveries. He can be a maverick motivated by the best timeless black music, as opposed to a slave to the rhythms of 60s makeweights like Traffic and The Yardbirds.
While singles like Uh Huh Oh Yeh! and Into Tomorrow are strong but unspectacular, this sidesteps into grooves influenced by his frustrated inner soul boy. In spells he’s seduced by Funkadelic and Blue Note, and then-fresh outfits like A Tribe Called Quest. The album, intriguingly, slides midway between what we think of as The Style Council and what we think of as Paul Weller. It’s aged well: if it seemed irrelevant and drab to the indie scene of the time, its classic flourishes are now flirtatious, vibrant.
Digitally remastered, it comes with 25 bonus tracks. In demo form Bull-Rush and Butterflies reveal even more of the sensitive side one wishes he’d believe in. His acoustic version of Marvin Gaye’s Abraham, Martin & John is a beauty. He was to ignore the whines of critics and immerse himself in a viable trad-rock career. Yet somehow, Weller tends to outlast detractors and have the last laugh. This sounds better today than it ever did.
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Paul Weller has always set his own standards, and high ones at that. Even the most die hard fans will have an album or phase that they disliked. But he has written more anthems for a generation than any 70/80's UK artist that I can remember. My personal favourite in this album - Above the Clouds a track to lose yourself in. The man is a music legend...
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Collectively, I have seen The Jam, Style Council and Paul Weller [including his poetry reading at The Roundhouse with John Cooper Clarke and Attila The Stockbroker] 295 times. Even 4 shows in New York in 2007 - including the instore at Virgin. By the end of 2009, it will be 297 - Norwich and Cambridge racing towards me. Last years Koko show was the best he's been at anytime since the Setting Sons tour. I even got my haircut just before the Michael Sobell Jam shows in 1981, because I needed to swap my Steve Marriott back-comb for a skinhead, like Weller had just done. You could say I was a fan. And do you know what? I don't care what anyone says about Weller, because his longevity puts paid to all that. he's the definitive last man standing. Taking a 'pop' at him and his music is pointless and futile, just as defending him would be. But calling Traffic '60s makeweights' is an error of judgment; Fantasy, Barleycorn and Spark being definitive and joyous 33rpm anthems. Please have this 'Chris Roberts' removed from office.
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Loving OneLeeSargent's eloquent chat: so elegant for someone so single-mindedly fanatical, as soundly placed as that fanaticism might be. I don't, however, think Chris Roberts should be canned. But his opening paragraph which talks about chickening out from straying from roots is made redundant by the rest of the article which details how wide Weller's musical styles stray. But to agree with Roberts I suspect - despite the glories of The Jam and The Style Council - that Paul Weller's greatest moments might be found on this, his first solo album. But it should all be listened to. And no doubt there's more where it came from.
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Everything that Weller recorded after this was crap. This is his best record by a long mile.
It would be helpful to say something about the extra tracks. Looking on amazon I can see that it is not just a collection of B sides, but acoustic and demo versions of tracks only previously available on bootleg. Might be worth getting!
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