![]() ![]() Longer in the tooth classics like The Jam’s ‘English Rose’, transformed here to the kind of late sixties-recalling melancholic arrangement that might have had ‘The Walker Brothers’ stamped on it, or ‘Carnation’, which has a beautiful sadness, are also recommended. Some of the many highlights here are from those same recent albums, like ‘Rockets’ from 2020’s On Sunset, which may have found its more natural home amongst the orchestral sway and swell, and the woodwind, brass and xylophone employed to wonderfully alluring effect on that album’s magnificent title track, an elegy for a time and place Weller used to know. As to the first charge, Weller has released great record after great record over the last several years at a rate that would shame acts a third his age, and as to the second, I suspect Weller is long past caring whether you do or you don't. For others, this sort of quasi-highbrow reshuffling is usually either a sign of artistic stagnation or a bid to be ’taken seriously’. ![]() The thing to remember is the sheer breadth of those song writing achievements The Jam’s debut single and the first great Weller song ‘In The City’ – not included here, cop on – was released in April 1977 and he’s been knocking them over the bar with fire and skill since. The result – previously broadcast by the BBC - is another Weller winner. Back in May of this year, the Woking warbler performed selections from every corner of his brilliant career in the London Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of conductor and arranger Jules Buckley, a talent who's worked with everyone from Dizzee Rascal to John Cale. I dare say you could tar and feather a songbook as strong as Paul Weller’s before you threw it down the stairs and it would still sound just as sweet, although this is possibly the safer option.
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