Description
Paul Weller’s consistency is a thing to be revered. It has been well over a decade since he recorded a bad song (his befuddled and bland version of ‘All Along The Watchtower’), let alone a bad record. Everything from 2005’s ‘As Is Now’ onwards has been at the very least solid; more often than not it’s been excellent. It’s to be admired that, some four-and-a-half decades into his career, he remains so intent to never, ever phone it in.
Read more: Paul Weller: “I’m trying different things as much as I can – time is of the essence, man”
It is, in short, one hell of a way to start a record, let alone the 26th of your career (The Jam and The Style Council included).opener sets a precedent for the experimental flair across the rest of the record. This experimentalism, the lush, extended prog-soul jam at the end of ‘More’; and the trippy electronic pump that forms the spine of the excellent ‘Earth Beat’. Even the songs that look entirely backwards, like the Kinks-ish knees-up ‘Equanimity’ or the Bowie-inflected ‘Rockets’, are imbued with irresistible breeziness and charm.
