{"id":1626,"date":"2008-08-21T14:48:49","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T18:48:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-01-14T10:41:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T14:41:37","slug":"paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Weller\u2026As His Music Was Meant to Sound!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/utcr5afdyng?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nYou may recall in late June the stunning announcement of the coming of a new <strong>Paul Weller<\/strong> album, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/06\/30\/it-won-t-be-long-paul-weller-to-release-\">22 Dreams<\/a><\/em>. As planned, the album hit on July 22, and I was all over it! How could I not have been primed for this release after the press release announced this momentous occasion?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8221;After <em>As Is Now<\/em> I thought the time was right to make the sort of record I wanted to make,&#8221; says Paul Weller of the creative process which led to his striking ninth solo album <em>22 Dreams<\/em>. &#8221;Instead of worrying about anyone else, I wanted to really push the boat out. I think the result is going to surprise a few people.&#8221; Surprises have always been part of the artistic vernacular for the man who changed rock forever with The Jam, explored a host of eclectic influences with The Style Council and cemented his position as the patriarch of Brit pop with his legendary solo work. <em>22 Dreams<\/em> is the latest chapter in a creative journey spanning 30 years, with material spanning the full breadth of popular music rock to classical, avant garde to funk and spoken word to experimental. In addition to a cast of Weller s frequent collaborators including <strong>Steve Cradock<\/strong> and producer Simon Dine, <em>22 Dreams<\/em> also features some of the largest beneficiaries of Weller&#8217;s incalculable musical influence. Noel Gallagher and Gem from Oasis lend their talents to &#8220;Echoes Around the Sun&#8221;, a writing collaboration between Weller and Gallagher. Ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon appears on &#8220;Black River&#8221;. The spirit of collaboration and an in-the-moment creative approach have resulted in one of Weller s most spirited works and one that is sure to expand the artistic canon of the one and only Modfather.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To give Weller&#8217;s dream album adequate time for digestion, I&#8217;ve waited until now to share my thoughts. I&#8217;ll share a few other tracks from this album as you read along, but first, why don&#8217;t you listen to the lead-off track, &#8220;Light Nights&#8221;? <\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Weller, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/PaulWeller_22Dreams_01_LightNights.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Light Nights&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think you will agree this is the way Weller would want you to begin thinking about his new album.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s long been acknowledged by all but the most ardent Paul Weller fans that the man struggles with <strong>Fogerty Syndrome<\/strong>. Lately, I&#8217;ve also begun seeing him as England&#8217;s answer to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php?s=lou+reed...as+his&amp;sentence=AND\">Lou Reed<\/a><\/strong>. Not in terms of subject matter, but rather career arc and relevance. <em>Dig:<\/em> Following a youthful burst of musical overachievement, the man has produced a large body of work that is occasionally brilliant, artfully self-absorbed, humorless, pompous, and constantly evolving and ambitious in concept if not in scope. <em>22 Dreams<\/em> is not only the album Weller had always wanted to make but the album he was obliged to make. As this album and the press release that announced its arrival demonstrate, it&#8217;s hard work being Paul Weller.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/pigbag.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"398\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Uh oh!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As leader of The Jam, Weller led a small force of two supporting musicians with an iron fist. It must have been a driven young man&#8217;s dream band to lead, especially a young man seemingly devoid of self-doubt. The young Weller could stick his dick on the table with the full support and blind loyalty of his &#8220;happy to go along for the ride&#8221; bandmates, much like John Fogerty must have felt with his rock-by-numbers backing band in the prime of CCR. Who was going to challenge Weller&#8217;s authority in The Jam? Although Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler would chafe at Weller&#8217;s management style, they would not risk the exposure of deserting the mission. Until someone laid the first <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pigbag\" target=\"_blank\">Pigbag<\/a><\/strong> single on Weller, it was full-steam ahead!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Weller, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/PaulWeller_22Dreams_02_22Dreams.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;22 Dreams&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/cary.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"536\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">See me, feel me&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The blinders that young Paul kept in place served him well, but along with that Pigbag single, he was bound to eventually see the peripheral world like the rest of us do. I have nothing to confirm this, but Weller strikes me as the kind of no-nonsense beer-drinking guy who started smoking pot and tripping relatively late into his 20s. The problem with artificial mind expansion (assuming there&#8217;s any benefit to it at any age) at a relatively late age is that by the time you want to &#8220;speak like a child&#8221; you&#8217;re already too far into adult patterns of thought and expression. You&#8217;re the latest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carygrant.net\/articles\/sexy%20sixty.htm\" target=\"_blank\">aging Cary Grant, being &#8220;born again&#8221; through LSD therapy<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In Weller&#8217;s case, he&#8217;s been born again and again: as a blue-eyed &#8217;80s soul man, as a trip-hopping raver, as a woodchopping heir to Joe Cocker and Steve Winwood, as the Godfather of Oasis, and as only his most loyal fans know what else. It&#8217;s hard work. On <em>22 Dreams<\/em>, whether he&#8217;s finding his Inner Richard Thompson or still waiting for that midnight hour, on the chaotic, suffocating title track, Weller is working his ass off to make his music sound the way it was meant to sound.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/W7LtX9k_ElU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nSince The Jam&#8217;s swan song and continuing in earnest through Style Council an aesthetic goal of Weller&#8217;s has been matching what he felt were the glories of Curtom-era <strong>Curtis Mayfield<\/strong>. I may be in the hipster minority, but I have always felt that Mayfield&#8217;s &#8220;Move On Up&#8221;, a song that I&#8217;ve learned strikes deep passions among Brits and other pasty-faced rock fans, is the first sign that Curtis was working harder than he needed to. It&#8217;s not a bad song, but it lacks the efficiency and quiet power of earlier works with <strong>The Impressions<\/strong>. By the time of his Curtom album, Mayfield went from being the quiet guy who came and left the office without much notice, doing a masterful job day in and day out, to the guy who&#8217;s better known for having the car that&#8217;s first in and last out of the parking lot. The deeper Weller gets into his Inner Curtom, the more strident and less evocative his material becomes.<br \/>\n<!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_block\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/wellerstudio.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"236\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"image_legend\">Not all fun and games<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The devil&#8217;s in the details, and sometimes the devil doesn&#8217;t free his mind enough to write a strong chorus. Compare the following Weller track and consider how Curtom-era Mayfield songs often fell a bit short of their desired target while early &#8217;70s Marvin Gaye singles more often hit the moon with their memorable choruses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Weller, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/PaulWeller_22Dreams_05_EmptyRing.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Empty Ring&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Gaye, one of the album&#8217;s instrumentals (it&#8217;s not easy padding a double album), &#8220;Song for Alyce&#8221;, sounds like incidental music from <em>Trouble Man<\/em>. I picture a Very Serious Weller hunched over the mixing console, Gitane in hand, while a 23-year-old engineer dials up a round of digital effects from Quincy Jones&#8217; &#8217;70s television soundtrack work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Weller, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/PaulWeller_22Dreams_17_WhereerYeGo.mp3\" title=\"\">&#8220;Where&#8217;er Ye Go&#8221;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not &#8211; and this gets back to my Lou Reed comparison &#8211; I can&#8217;t help but love Paul Weller. As with Reed, I love his effort and his entire self-made artist saga. We should all work as hard at thinking we&#8217;re working hard in our artistic endeavors as have Weller and Reed. Believe it or not, <em>22 Dreams<\/em> is not unlistenable or without merit. <strong>&#8220;All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)&#8221;<\/strong>, despite a set of lyrics that fails to rise above what&#8217;s contained in the song&#8217;s title, is a celebration of slowly pounding floor tom beats and tasty guitar clusters that I can get behind. The jaunty, jazzy <strong>&#8220;Black River&#8221;<\/strong>, with brushed snare, tinkling piano, slide guitar, and cool harmonies sounds like something The Kinks or Small Faces would have done. And despite all reasonable warnings against once angry young rockers recording piano ballads (and trust me, there are a few cautionary tales on this album), the super tender, neo-folk song <strong>&#8220;Where&#8217;er Ye Go&#8221;<\/strong> is one of the album&#8217;s highlights. Weller sounds like he&#8217;s put in a simple, hard day&#8217;s work for once, with no need to call attention to himself and his hopes for the next-available bonus. More like this and another track toward the end of this unnecessarily long day at the office, <strong>&#8220;Sea Spray&#8221;<\/strong>, and Paul can treat himself and his family to something fun over the holidays.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/u7VROIGU6eo?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822\/US\/rotoha00-20\/8002\/a813eb8c-d94e-4489-99d3-176f340c9bbf\"> <\/script> <noscript><a HREF=\"http:\/\/ws.amazon.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Frotoha00-20%2F8002%2Fa813eb8c-d94e-4489-99d3-176f340c9bbf&amp;Operation=NoScript\">Amazon.com Widgets<\/a><\/noscript><\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may recall in late June the stunning announcement of the coming of a new Paul Weller album, 22 Dreams. As planned, the album hit on July 22, and I was all over it! How could I not have been primed for this release after the press release announced this momentous occasion? &#8221;After As Is <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/paul-weller-as-his-music-was-meant-to-so\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}