Paul Weller - Jam - Style Council - The last of the mods

Paul Weller, the man with the eternally boyish face, the Cappuccino Kid par excellence, the one who brought European attention back to the mod movement, was born on 25 May 1958 in Woking, Surrey, England, into a middle-class family. His career, which began in the thick of the punk era, gradually turned towards a delicious mix of white rock and black "soul" sounds, with funky, jazzy overtones. Always elegant and impeccable, he has established himself as one of the key figures of the last thirty years of British pop and a tangible point of reference for many of today's leading artists.

The Jam: Quadrophenia in the age of punk

Weller's thirty-year adventure began right in the middle of the punk explosion, when, not yet twenty, he became the leader of the Jam, destined to be hailed as one of the most influential bands on the British music scene of the late Seventies. Their formula was a clever, personal blend of punk-rock and pop, of beat and rhythm'n'blues, which would win over both critics and a considerable following.
Paul Weller was the guitarist, singer, undisputed leader and main songwriter of the group.
True mods, the Jam sported white shirts, black jacket and tie, immaculate haircuts, and, unlike many of their contemporaries, proved they could actually play.

Their story begins in 1975, when four schoolmates started meeting after lessons to strum away on their instruments together; besides Weller, there was bassist Bruce Foxton, drummer Rick Buckler and guitarist Steve Brookes, who would soon drop out of the project.
Their main musical touchstones were, on one hand, the underground punk scene about to explode with unimaginable fury, and on the other, the Sixties mod revival, led by the Who (especially the Quadrophenia-era version) and the Small Faces, with a dash of Tamla Motown-style soul thrown in.
The resulting mixture was initially geared more towards catchy punk-rock, but, album after album, it grew softer, leaning increasingly towards pop and socially engaged lyrics: at this stage, the Kinks became the most concrete point of reference. In an era when the single, the 45, was still a hugely successful format, Weller and co. managed to string together a run of golden songs that would earn them the eternal devotion of their fans.

The trio's "march on London" kicked off in a rather unusual way, with an open-air gig at Soho Market. Then came the real debut, at the legendary 100 Club. By February 1977 the Jam had already signed a deal with Polydor, which led to their first single, "In The City", a personal tribute to the lively punk scene of the time, built on a forceful guitar-and-bass riff that would later be pinched by the Sex Pistols for "Holidays In The Sun".
In The City (1977) is also the title of their debut album, a fine combination of rhythm'n'blues numbers and a punk-rock approach aimed at capturing the energy of their live shows as faithfully as possible. All delivered in the typically short song format, three minutes tops, as per punk philosophy (with the Clash as the main model).
Standing out are those urban tales and vivid city vignettes ("Sounds From The Street", "Bricks And Mortar") that would become a constant in the Jam's repertoire. Musically, a fresh blend of melody and aggression is already taking shape. The sound is still raw, built mainly around the interplay between Weller's nervy guitar and Townshend-esque riffs and a rhythm section of considerable impact, centred on Foxton's dynamic basslines and Buckler's powerhouse drumming. The ballad "Away From The Numbers", on the other hand, nods towards Elvis Costello-style songwriting.

With their second single, "All Around The World", which came close to breaking into the English top ten, the band distanced itself from the punk movement for the first time ("what's the point in saying destroy"). A contrarian shift foreshadowed by another striking statement: "All this talk about changing the world is becoming a fashion, at the next election we'll vote Conservative", Weller told the NME. Many didn't take kindly to it: Joe Strummer of the Clash held a grudge, and after the Tories came to power, sent Weller a sarcastic telegram: "Maggie Thatcher awaits you next week to fine-tune your targets."
Meanwhile, their growing success pushed the Jam to embark on a successful UK tour.

In those months, changes came thick and fast — the Clash and Sex Pistols were setting London alight, and there was no time to lose: before the year was out, the Jam released their second album, This Is Modern World, which gave them even greater visibility and turned them into the flagship band of the reborn mod movement.
The record is more aggressive than its predecessor, with the energetic "The Modern World" leading the charge. Alongside the Who-style "rebelliousness", Weller's soul leanings and his love of the Motown sound come through more clearly. In this light, the cover of Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" sounds like a genuine tribute. The lyrics grow sharper and more pointed: through the strings of his Rickenbacker, Weller gives voice to the uneasy malaise of his generation.
In 1978, the more melodic "News Of The World" was released as a single, an early hint of the pop turns to come, as well as an open critique of the British tabloid press and the media in general; the next single was a cover of the Kinks' "David Watts", delivered by Weller with biting verve.

While things were going swimmingly at home, across the ocean the Jam never managed (and would almost never manage) to win over American audiences, despite a series of tours, some as opening act for well-known American acts such as Blue Oyster Cult. Their "Englishness", after all, was so pronounced that it made the task almost impossible.

Weller kept growing as a songwriter, and the band was hungry for even greater recognition. In 1979 came the album that sealed their reputation, All Mod Cons, which cemented the Jam's status as the figureheads of the mod movement in the public imagination.
More mature in terms of arrangements and sound as well (which included some piano parts played by Weller himself), the album reached number six on the British charts and reflected the band's growing focus on social and political themes. Evidence of this can be found in the tale of urban violence in "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" (banned by the BBC for running counter to the government's anti-immigration stance) and the biting jazzy sketch "Mr. Clean", as well as the refined "In The Crowd", which fades into a guitar solo over an acid-rock mantra (it would later become one of Weller's live staples).
While the punk sounds of their early days live on in frontal assaults like the title track and "A Bomb In Wardour Street", what really shines through is the band's melodic streak, lighting up sweet, almost Beatles-esque ballads such as "Fly" and "English Rose", and brilliant folk-pop episodes like "The Place I Love" and "To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time?)".

The following single, "The Eton Rifles", a rock fable about class struggle, broke into the top ten for the first time, reaching number three: for the first time, a Jam song got regular airplay on British radio, reaching an audience well beyond their loyal early fanbase. On keyboards appears a certain Mick Talbot, who, a few years later, would become Weller's partner in the successful Style Council venture.
New ideas were still needed to project the band beyond the loyal but limited following guaranteed by the mod tribe, who had by now anointed them the sole heirs to the Who. That goal was achieved a few months later with the fourth album, Setting Sons (1979), driven by "The Eton Rifles" itself and by the other single, "Going Underground", an invective against nuclear treaties that reached number one on the English charts. To perform the song on the famous TV show Top Of The Pops, the Jam cut short yet another unlucky American tour.
Overall, the album is richer and more varied than its predecessors, ranging from Kinks-style proletarian protest songs ("Private Hell"; "Little Boy Soldiers") to a revival of beat sounds (the Beatles-esque "Wasteland" and the uptempo "Smithers-Jones", written by Foxton, with a string-quartet arrangement), from chronicles of everyday urban desolation ("Private Hell", "Saturdays Kids") to youthful anthems ("Thick As Thieves"), not forgetting fresh tributes to Motown (the cover of "Heat Wave"), in a sweep that retraces all the key stages of the band's musical journey.

In 1980 came Sound Affects, featuring, among other things, the number one single "Start" (an almost ska number, inspired by George Orwell) and the hugely famous ballad "That's Entertainment", often called the Jam's "Yesterday", a perfect sardonic snapshot of "English life" at the time. The Jam's hit album, Sound Affects offers an engaging set of songs that starts to lean more overtly towards pop, with frequent horn parts, synth touches and unprecedented nods to danceability. The instrumental ska of "Music For The Last Couple" sounds almost like an Xtc studio jam, while "Man In The Corner Shop" takes on folk-rock colours, boasting one of Weller's most brilliant refrains. Yet traces of their early aggression remain, from the vibrant "Going Underground" to the protest song "Pretty Green", right up to "Set The House Ablaze", which skilfully blends light and shadow, dissonant guitar work and lively openings, culminating in a strikingly evocative instrumental coda.

In 1981 two singles not featured on any album were released, "Funeral Pyre" and "Absolute Beginners", melodic experiments that pushed the Jam even further from their early sound, while still cementing their fame at home.
At the start of 1982 came the single "A Town Called Malice/Precious" (a double a-side that stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks) and the first album to reach the top of the charts, The Gift, which nevertheless shows a band uncertain, searching for new horizons to explore, caught between the dance temptations of "Precious" and the usual Motown-indebted soul of "Town Called Malice" and "Beat Surrender".

Despite growing success, the machine was starting to break down: Weller was increasingly drawn to his soul influences, began planning cool, jazzy departures, and the confines of the trio seemed to be closing in on him; "The Bitterest Pill" was already seen by fans at the time as a sort of solo single by the frontman.
After all, the first wave of true, genuine punk had long since run its course, and electro-wave gimmicks held no appeal for Paul, who was itching to test himself on new ground.

In October 1982 the Jam announced their split, following it with a triumphant farewell UK tour (closing with five dates at Wembley Arena in London), a fourth number one single ("Beat Surrender"), and a hugely successful live greatest hits release (Dig The New Breed). Releases that prove just how prolific the band remained even in its final days.

The decision to disband the Jam was undoubtedly a brave one, not least because it came just as the band's fame was on the verge of going global, but it's only one of many pieces of evidence of Weller's versatility and unpredictability — he would go on to find widespread acclaim with the Style Council venture, and in the equally interesting solo career he continues to pursue brilliantly to this day. Less fortunate were the fates of his two former bandmates: Foxton would record a solo album before joining the reformed Stiff Little Fingers as bassist, while Buckler, after a fruitless stint with Time UK, would abandon the music scene altogether.
Looking back, Weller's choice proved far-sighted, since the all-consuming obsession with image that was taking hold in the Eighties would surely have crushed a punk-oriented outfit like the Jam: better, then, to disband it and give rise to a new venture better suited to the changing tastes of the moment.

The Jam left behind six major albums, faithful snapshots of a less frontier-oriented English adolescence straddling the 70s and 80s, and a string of hit singles solid enough to earn them a rightful place among the most important British bands in pop history. In a brief span of time (1977-1982) they managed to build a valid alternative to their cousins' "no future", reclaiming the noble sixties roots of British pop (the Who, the Kinks, the Beatles). Few bands of that era can still boast such a loyal and passionate following in Britain (and beyond).

Style Council: soul-pop at Café Bleu

Just three months after the Jam broke up, Paul Weller decided to form a new band together with his friend Mick Talbot (London, 1 September 1958), who had already stood by his side since the days of Setting Sons and was a former keyboardist with Dexys Midnight Runners, another British punk-folk outfit (remember "Come On Eileen"?). Completing the Style Council was the very young drummer Steve White, who would be nicknamed with the extravagant title of "the eighteen-year-old drum warrior".
In England it was the era of Margaret Thatcher's conservatism and the implementation of her economic restructuring policy. In his lyrics, Weller set himself up as the voice of an entire generation's protest against the government in London, calling out the chief ills of 1980s Britain, from racism to unemployment. For Weller, however, the Style Council represented a genuine revolution compared to his previous experience. The new band, in fact, moved considerably away from the Jam's sound, arriving at a distinctive style: a kind of soul-jazz with an old-fashioned flavour and a romantic, fatalistic attitude

In 1983, at the Liverpool Empire, the first "Council Meeting" was held, packed with an audience expecting a continuation of the Jam and a fresh wave of mod "anthems". Weller caught them off guard, presenting himself as a new white soul man, steeped in the atmosphere of a Parisian cabaret.
1983 was also the year of the Style Council's debut album, Introducing The Style Council, which served as a "preface" to the band's career. The first single, "Speak Like A Child", still shows some ties to the Jam experience, but leans noticeably towards Motown-style sounds. The other single taken from it, "Long Hot Summer", is a dance track interspersed with several soul-jazz touches. However, rather than a proper debut, Introducing The Style Council amounts to a simple introduction (as the title itself confirms) to the band's later masterpiece, Café Bleu.

Produced in March 1984 by Polydor, Café Bleu almost seems to mirror in music Paul Weller's changeable, restless character: it ranges from the refined pop of "You're The Best Thing" (a huge hit that year) and "Headstart For Happiness" to the "British jazz" of "Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse", from the soul-folk of "Here's One That Got Away" to the rap of "A Gospel". Refined atmospheres straight out of a French night-club pervade the enchanting "Paris Match" (sung by Tracey Thorn of Everything But The Girl), but the record's most representative track is probably "My Ever Changing Moods", a ballad for voice and piano meant to capture Weller's moody temperament (and also the title of the album's American release). The CD edition also includes "The Whole Point Of No Return", a track with vaguely bossa nova contours, recorded with just voice and guitar after the album had already gone to print.
With Café Bleu the Style Council won solid critical acclaim and, above all, real commercial success, reaching number five on the UK charts. For them and other artists with a similar soul-pop-jazz leaning (Matt Bianco, Sade, Everything But The Girl, Working Week) the label "English cool" was even coined. Meanwhile, Paul Weller stepped up his social and political engagement. He took part in the recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas" with Band Aid alongside Midge Ure and Bob Geldof, and later, together with Mick Talbot, joined "Red Wedge", an organisation set up to spread Labour Party ideology, alongside Billy Bragg and Jimmy Somerville's Communards. For Weller it was yet another transformation, given that during his time with the Jam he had once claimed to be pro-Conservative.

The success of Café Bleu was repeated a year later with Our Favourite Shop, notable for the presence of Dee C. Lee, the striking Black backing singer whom Weller would marry in 1986. A pair of irresistible singles — the R&B of "Walls Come Tumbling Down" and the soul-funk of "Shout To The Top" — guaranteed an immediate impact with audiences. But the album also thrives, and above all, on intense, refined ballads such as "Boy Who Cried Wolf" (perhaps the record's masterpiece, with Talbot's keyboard flourishes well to the fore), "The Lodgers", "A Stones Throw Away" and "Homebreakers". "Come To Milton Keynes", on the other hand, is a bitter, biting reflection on the hardship of urban suburbs.
With Our Favourite Shop the Style Council perfected the formula of Café Bleu, adding — if anything — an extra touch of sophistication. The album was released in the United States under the title Internationalists, taken from the name of one of its most "political" tracks.

The Weller-Talbot duo immediately rode the wave of success, releasing Home And Abroad: Live!, a live album that reached number eight on the UK charts. Also in 1986, they recorded the single "Have You Ever Had It Blue" (a reworking of "With Everything To Lose"), which would later be included in the soundtrack of "Absolute Beginners", Julien Temple's musical film.

1987 was the year of The Cost Of Loving, a mediocre record that, despite being savaged by critics, still managed to reach number two on the UK Top Ten. The lead track is "It Didn't Matter". The single "Waiting", however, barely scraped into the top forty. It marked the start of a crisis that foreshadowed the band's breakup.
Just when they seemed headed for a swift end, in June 1988 the Style Council surprised everyone by delivering perhaps the most ambitious album of their career: Confessions Of A Pop Group. It's an autobiographical record made up of two parts: the first is a suite of jazz pieces in which Talbot brilliantly shows off his great skills as a pianist; among them stands out a long three-part medley, "The Gardener Of Eden", enriched by brilliant orchestral arrangements. The second part, meanwhile, is marked by a refined pop sound that is more developed than anything in their past, starting with the single "Life At A Top People's Health Farm", tinged with soul-reggae. Confessions Of A Pop Group shows a more confident and enterprising Weller, at the peak of his artistic maturity. And yet the album was judged negatively by critics. Commercially too, compared to previous results, Confessions Of A Pop Group proved a failure, even though it reached number fifteen on the charts. The end of the road came the following year, when Polydor rejected the release of "Modernism — A New Decade", the band's new work, this time built around house and club music sounds. The Style Council's breakup became inevitable. The final act was The Singular Adventures Of The Style Council, a singles collection that also included the previously unreleased "Promised Land". With the Style Council experience over, Paul Weller launched his solo career in 1992, releasing several albums with beat-inflected leanings, through which he became one of the leading precursors of the britpop that would follow, dominated by Oasis, Blur and company.

In the brief but significant adventure of the Style Council, Paul Weller proved adept at experimenting with new musical directions, close to the acid-jazz that would follow, and at reworking that soul-pop heritage descended from the great tradition of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. His lyrics, meanwhile, established him as a poet-dandy, able to voice the anxieties and frustrations of his own generation.
In the years that followed, box sets and anthologies would pay tribute to the Style Council's journey, the latest being Long Hot Summers, a sweeping retrospective released towards the end of 2020 and curated in part by Weller himself. The tracklist includes not only all the group's hits but also several lesser-known songs and a couple of previously unreleased tracks: a demo of "My Ever Changing Moods" and an extended version of "Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse". To round off the Long Hot Summers project, a documentary was planned for broadcast during 2021 on the Sky Arte TV network.

The return of the Cappuccino Kid

After venting his adolescent urges with the Jam and the cool new-jazz flourishes of the Style Council, Paul Weller found himself at the dawn of the 90s with a wealth of ideas and the desire to start again from scratch, after Polydor rejected the release of New Decade Of Modernism, an album that would have marked a definitive shift towards more dance-oriented sounds — a shift only partially realised by the Style Council's final single, "Promised Land".
Weller disbanded the group that had made his name internationally throughout the 80s and put together the Paul Weller Movement, with a line-up made up of old and new friends and, above all, a fine horn section, confirming him as one of the fathers of what was then a significant acid-jazz movement.
His solo career renewed the fusion of white rock and black music, while toning down the anti-Thatcherite, pro-Labour political stances that had culminated in the Style Council's Our Favourite Shop.

The move to Go! Discs produced, in 1992, his self-titled solo debut Paul Weller (featuring "Uh Huh Oh Yeah" and "Into Tomorrow" as its first singles), somewhat unfocused and still tied to certain Style Council-style sounds, though it did show Weller's knack for well-crafted, catchy songwriting.
This first record was made without most of the Movement (though it was enriched here by a female backing-vocal section), so the album was released simply under the name Paul Weller. His main challenge at this stage was establishing himself as a solo artist in the public imagination, something that would be fully achieved with the productions that followed.

The creative peak of the former Cappuccino Kid, in fact, came with the following two albums, Wild Wood in 1994 and the hugely successful Stanley Road (named after the street where he grew up) in 1995, which stayed in the UK top ten for about a year, spawning a long string of hugely enjoyable singles.
In both cases Weller skilfully combined superb ballads ("Wild Wood", "Porcelain Gods", "Broken Stones" and "You Do Something To Me" above all), blistering, driving songs with well-placed horns and funky moods ("Has My Fire Really Gone Out", "Shadow Of The Sun", "5th Season", the cover of "I Walk On Gilded Splinters") and moments of extraordinary elegance ("All The Pictures On The Wall", "Foot Of The Mountain"), serving up the finest fruits of his compositional gift on two practically perfect records.

Between the two classics, 1994 saw the release of the solid Live Wood, an energetic live album that captures well the band's spirit on stage.

Over the following ten years, while still turning out more than respectable work, Paul Weller was never again able to reach the heights of his two masterpieces.
As early as 1997, Heavy Soul showed a step down, despite the presence of notable guests such as Ocean Colour Scene, Steve Cradock and Damon Minchella, who tried to inject fresh energy.
Heavy Soul comes across as raw and decidedly guitar-oriented, with heavy use of feedback and distortion; standout moments include the fierce blues of "Peacock Suit", the epic sweep of "Brushed" and the softer moments of "Friday Street" and "Up In Suze's Room".

Britpop, meanwhile, had become a mass phenomenon: Blur, Oasis, Suede, Pulp and a host of lesser bands were flooding the charts across half of Europe. Many of them still had a poster of Weller in one of his many incarnations stuck to their bedroom wall, yet there seemed to be little media space left for the former Jam and Style Council leader, not least because he himself showed no interest in joining the merry gang in heavy rotation on MTV.
The eternal Surrey boy needed to gather his thoughts, and in 1998, to take stock of things, he released Modern Classics, a greatest hits covering the first six years of his solo career.

The break, however, proved fruitless, and in 2002 Weller slipped down yet another notch with Heliocentric, one of his least incisive works, despite a few notable tracks such as the refined "Frightened" and "Loveless".
Compared to Heavy Soul, the sound becomes less raw and orchestral arrangements regain some ground; but his creative vein is beginning to seriously dry up, and he's scraping the bottom of the barrel a little.

At this point Weller embarks on an exciting acoustic theatre tour that he faces in complete solitude, coming into direct contact with his fans like never before and discovering that many of them are surprisingly young. The setlist ranges across his entire back catalogue, dipping into recent hits, past hits (Jam included), and a few unfairly overlooked outtakes.
The atmosphere is only partially captured on the acoustic live album Days Of Speed, which turns out to be a valuable document, even if a bit one-note.

After the crowd bath, Weller is ready to head back into the recording studio and cut Illumination (2003), an illumination from the very opening of "Going Places", which oozes energy from every pore. Paul proves he can still get angry ("A Bullet For Everyone"), that he can still write thoroughly respectable soul ballads ("Who Brings Joy", "All Good Books"), and that he can still surprise by unexpectedly opening up to unprecedented ethnic flourishes ("Spring At Last").
And on "Call Me N° 5" he shows he's quite capable of dialoguing with his own "children", hosting a highly successful duet with Kelly Jones, singer of Stereophonics.
Illumination doesn't garner glowing reviews, but it wins over audiences as a pleasant, intelligent, well-crafted record.

In 2004 comes another label change (V2) and Studio 150, a covers collection highlighted by the delightful "Wishing On A Star".

Many were saying Weller had hit a dead end and run out of inspiration, but he proved everyone wrong by releasing, just a year later (October 2005), As Is Now, a fresh, modern new work that preceded a new, widely acclaimed round of touring. The English songwriter returns to his well-established mix of white rock and dark undertones, by now his trademark sound. The album opens with the breathtaking one-two of "Blink And You'll Miss It" and "Paper Smile", sharp, direct and driving. Then comes the irresistible "Come On-/Let's Go" and the divertissement of "Here's The Good News", with excellent work from Weller on piano and horns providing a tasty counterpoint. "Pan" is an elegy for piano, strings, choir and flute, "All On A Misty Morning" is an unplugged triumph, "I Wanna Make It Alright" and "Roll Along Summer" are two elegant jazzy up-tempo numbers, and "Savages" could well be the Gallagher brothers' dream come true.
And if the full-blooded rock 'n' roll of "From The Floor Boards Up" puts every pseudo baby-rock band with a "the" in their name firmly in its place, the over seven minutes of "Bring Back The Funk" seems to want to remind us where the acid-jazz phenomenon began. Despite a few tired moments ("Fly Little Bird", "The Peeble And The Boy"), the album confirms the rediscovered vein of a Weller who can still scratch and seduce, flanked by the ever-faithful Steve White on drums (with him since the Style Council lineup), Steve Cradock on lead guitar, Damon Minchella on bass, and a host of strings and horns, among them the other ever-faithful Jacko Peake on sax.

Out of the successful As Is Now tour comes the double live album Catch – Flame!, which captures the band's good health well, even if qualitatively it sits a notch below Live Wood.

At the end of 2006 a single with two unreleased tracks is surprisingly put out: "Wild Blue Younder" and "Small Personal Fortune".
Around the same time, a special edition of Wild Wood hits the market (the Stanley Road one dates back to the album's tenth anniversary), containing 15 unreleased demos, three recordings made for the BBC, and a 32-page booklet.

2007 sees Weller busy with a string of important collaborations, including an EP with Graham Coxon and Zak Starkey titled This Old Town, a guest appearance on Robert Wyatt's "Comicopera", and the compelling "Are You Trying To Be Lonely", which finds a home on Andy Lewis's second album.
2008 opens with the Modfather busy planning his new record, while talk grows ever more insistent of a possible Jam reunion (album plus tour), though it's already been announced that Weller has no intention of taking part in the event.

To celebrate his fiftieth birthday, Weller releases his eleventh solo album, 22 Dreams (2008), a record with the running time of an old-school double vinyl, on which he has fun showcasing a variety of genres. Besides the usual mod-style tracks (the title track), britpop ("Sea Spray"), and the inevitable mix of rock and funky soul (the softness of "Empty Ring" and "Cold Moments"), Weller in fact has no shortage of surprises in store. Opening and closing the record, for instance, are two Indian-flavoured atmospheres ("Light Nights" and "Night Lights"), and while the first stays within the most ordinary song form, the second unfolds as a cosmic-space ecstasy, eventually closing with the rumble of summer-storm thunder. But within the twenty-two dreams there's still plenty to throw you off balance: a splendid Bacharach-esque pop orchestration ("Black River"), a kind of Springsteen-boogie ("Push It Along"), melancholic romance by way of a dragging tango ("One Bright Star"), piano and strings in loving encounters ("Lullaby Fur Kinder", "Where'er Ye Go"), and kraut universes ("111").

Guest appearances, of course, are not lacking: Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of Oasis contribute to the psychedelic rock of "Echoes Round The Sun", Aziz Ibrahim (Stone Roses) provides the spoken voice in the mystical prayer of "God", while the great Robert Wyatt lays out his trumpet over the jazz patchwork of "Song For Alice", a tribute to the late Mrs Coltrane. Despite all its diversity, 22 Dreams is a fluid record, a sheer pleasure to listen to; Mr Weller's compositional talent calibrates every episode (except perhaps a few tracks in the first half) with incredible class, and even produces some exceptional pieces, such as the piano-and-voice ballad "Invisible", wonderful and touching with its soul undertone.

In 2010, Wake Up The Nation ushers the Modfather into the new decade, and it does so with a fierce sound, arguably the most genuine and passionate rock'n'roll of our times. From the muscular piano attack of "Moonshine" onward, the intent to floor the accelerator is plain to hear. Classicism and modernity marry perfectly on the following title track, almost a rewrite of "Let's Stick Together", not to mention the subsequent "No Tears To Cry", steeped in soul ancestry. The whole album is a concentrate of styles ranging from the blaxploitation homage of "Aim High" to the pianistic flourishes of "Pieces Of A Dream", from the postmodern instrumental psychedelia of "Whatever Next" to the seasoned rocker attitude of "Up The Dosage", all suitably seasoned with a mountain of electric and electronic effects. And when the listener reaches "Andromeda", a standing ovation is triggered.
Among the many credited guests are ex-My Bloody Valentine Kevin Shields and the legendary Tornados drummer Clem Cattini. It's interesting to find the Jam's bassist, Bruce Foxton, on the energetic "Fast Car, Slow Traffic", and given that talk of a reunion crops up now and then, this can only bode well. Even the boss's daughter makes an appearance on "Find The Torch, Burn The Plans", an unusual stadium-sized hit. The much-hyped "Trees" (dedicated to his recently deceased father), on the other hand, disappoints: an ill-fitting jumble of styles and influences. In any case, Wake Up The Nation stands as the present-day manifesto of an artist very much alive and kicking. Even if a few wrinkles now mark his face, the immortal Cappuccino Kid is still able to sound the wake-up call to the entire British nation.

It's well known that good old modfather has always felt the need to vent his ever-changing moods. What even the most imaginative listener could have failed to predict, however, was a Weller eager to put himself back in play, contaminating the britpop of which he remains one of its most illustrious high priests with a mystical bender of German kosmische musik, the sound that had revolutionised the rock world in the Seventies, as happens on Sonik Kicks (2012). If, on the one hand, the meticulous production work makes the album an aesthetic pleasure in its calibrated layering of conservative and futurist elements, on the other hand the songwriting doesn't always manage to strike the balance needed to avoid the risk of irreverence. It's hard, then, to get past sheer astonishment when the motorik beat of "Green" opens the dance, conjuring the ghost of Neu! amid sci-fi special effects that reek of plastic surgery. The attempt to cross Stanley Road aboard a tank repeats itself on "Dragonfly" (featuring Graham Coxon on keyboards), on which they dance the Hallo Gallo while waving the Union Jack, though it's hard to grasp to what end.
Fortunately, when Weller's writing shifts to the more pop-leaning shores that made his name, there's consolation to be found in a "Paperchase" redolent of Magical Mystery Tour, and above all in the infectious anthem "Garden's Overgrown", which carves its way through laser beams and Barrett-esque devilry without ever losing its bearings. The acoustic-and-strings ballad "By The Waters" then seems to build itself, made of plenty of craft but also of crystalline class; the same class that lets a single like "Dangerous Age" glide lightly through its daring redrawing of Swingin' London in a hi-tech sauce. Little can be done, though, to mask unsettling stylistic missteps such as the inexplicable Balkan-tinged hiccups that "Kling I Klang" barely manages to move through, or the attempt to defibrillate a Cappuccino Kid soul that seems all too withered on "Study In Blue" (which features the voice of Paul's new wife, Hannah Andrews). However noble Weller's attempt to reinvent his own sound may be, then, the album captures a transitional phase in which the quality of the songs is often not enough to lend the shift sufficient credibility. Emblematic in this sense is the closing "Be Happy Children", Motown soul haunted by drones whose splendid melodic intuitions ultimately fail to come together, leaving the track stuck in limbo.

For Saturns Pattern, his 2015 record, Weller puts a melting pot of influences on the table, as if wanting to pay tribute to the many styles that shaped him, ranging from rock to soul, devising numerous ideas, yet giving the impression of lacking a clear direction. And the game had started well enough, with the hyper-effected assault (perhaps a bit too much so) of "White Sky" (which later finds its less successful little sister in "Phoenix"), but then things get a little lost somewhere between what Weller wanted to achieve and what he actually managed to pull off. Take "Long Time": the intention is to create a supersonic-driven track, yet it ends up as a rather banal little song.
Then there are a few well-made moments, for instance when Weller embroiders elegant mid-tempos, a specialty in which he often excels, giving birth to tracks such as "Going My Way" or "These City Streets", certainly not greatest-hits material, but pleasant enough. The title track leaves no mark, and things don't go much better with "Pick It Up", "I'm Where I Should Be" or the more psychedelic "In The Car…", too conventional and lifeless to seriously dazzle. Saturns Pattern will probably be remembered as a rather weak album, one that has the merit of preserving the author's enthusiasm but risks diminishing fans' interest.

Two years later, a new album arrives, titled A Kind Revolution (2017). A decisive change of course, a sort of big bang from which to start over, marking the fortieth anniversary of In The City, the first record made by the Jam. Weller celebrates the anniversary the way only true champions know how: A Kind Revolution contains splendid songs, where the writing and the mash-up of rock, jazz, soul and funk (always his trademarks) are once again on a par with his best days. Title aside, the heroic days of Red Wedge are by now a distant memory, and despite the topicality of Brexit, with menacing Thatcherite clones on the march, one might expect Paul to man the barricades again. Instead, with candles for his approaching 60th on the horizon and a tribe of partners, ex-wives and children to look after, Weller's current thinking is less inclined towards rebellion and more an invitation to act, addressed to society as a whole, given the lack of politicians capable of tackling the big social issues. It's in these terms, then, that the very gentle, far-from-Copernican revolution that gives the album its name should be understood.
The dancing kicks off with a decisive guitar attitude seasoned with r&b and riffs in pure rock'n'roll style on "Woo Se Mama", though in the following tracks the soul spirit prevails, with the grooves and rhythms that had made "Wild Wood" a success. Halfway through the record, what's been heard so far already justifies the purchase, and an excellent grade, with great joy. There's still room for "Satellite Kid", a sort of jam session with the guitars once again to the fore, and above all "One Tear", a slowed-down disco-funk duet with Boy George. No surprise there: the Modfather has long admired Boy George's warm, sensual voice, and has never missed a chance to publicly sing his praises (in his own words, one of the few voices worth saving in the otherwise disreputable early-80s musical landscape).
Certainly, the consecutive double uppercut of "Wild Wood"/"Stanley Road" remains untouchable and in some ways unrepeatable, but this "gentle revolution" has all it takes to claim third place on the podium, in a hypothetical discography contest, alongside As Is Now from 2005. Weller is like that cyclist who, aware he can no longer rely on the explosiveness of his best days, plays it smart by further refining his class and elegance. And so he takes the lead of the pack once more, having caught his breath, to the delight of the Queen's subjects. And not only them.

Having reached the milestone of sixty, the Modfather indulges himself by writing a work of pure singer-songwriter craft, with a crooner's touch, embellished by orchestral elements capable of lifting his voice aloft. For True Meanings, Paul Weller opens the doors of Black Barn Studios to friends from different eras and backgrounds, such as Rod Argent of the Zombies, Martin Carthy, Lucy Rose, Danny Thompson of Pentangle, and even Noel Gallagher (whose contribution, in fact, amounts to just two brief cameos). The result is an album that draws on the imagery of folk-rock songwriters such as Nick Drake and Neil Young, but brings to it Weller's own elegance and a decidedly relaxed, positive songwriting, thanks also to the orchestral component that manages to bring out what is really the true star of the show. Declaring its intentions is the funk-jazz of "The Soul Searchers", whose lyrics were written by Conor O'Brien of Villagers. Acoustic guitars, dramatic strings, even the ominous sound of the Hammond organ played by Rod Argent: thus the perfect soundtrack is served for every soul-searching carried out by moonlight. Weller delicately enunciates each syllable, as if it were part of some narrative or propitiatory rite: whether it's the pastoral imagery of "Glide", intoned in a low key just above the acoustic guitars, the glam rock intro of "Mayfly" or the lush orchestrations of "Gravity", it hardly matters. There is a common thread, often suspended over the contrasts inherent to the human soul, as in "Wishing Well", where the call of acoustic Neil Young is as strong in the verses as Weller's voice unexpectedly turns resolute on the chorus, spurred on by the vibraphone at the song's centre.
For his fourteenth solo album, Weller puts in everything he has, contradictions included: from the erotic poetry of "Come Along" to the Harrison-esque mysticism of "Books" (complete with Sheema Mukherjee's sitar and a brief appearance by Noel Gallagher's harmonium), up to what is the record's opus magnum, the ambitious and dramatic "May Love Travel With You", dominated by classical and orchestral elements. Although Weller personally wrote most of the material, the many guest musicians leave more than one evident mark, whether it's the mischievous waltzes of "Old Castles", the desperate pop-soul laments of "What Would He Say" and "Movin' On", or the purely British songwriting of "Aspects", not by chance chosen as the lead single. The most unexpected ghost, however, is that of former foe David Bowie, on a reflective track about death and life; a piece that seems to come from some remote time and place, and it's genuinely hard to hold back tears when Weller sings: "Do you know there's no journey?/ We're arriving and departing all the time/ You were just mortal like me". Strings and acoustic guitar mark what is, in effect, the descent among mortals of the late Major Tom, who, at the end of a long feud lasting until the 2000s, jokingly asked Weller to give him back his haircut as a token of peace. The album closes with the involvement of Erland Cooper for the lyrics of "White Horses", which once again shows Paul Weller's desire to redefine himself through other points of view far removed from his own generation, without ever abandoning the provocative language that has always set him apart. It's a perfect closing track, thanks above all to Rod Argent's mellotron, able to slip gently in among the strings, the guitar arpeggios and the chimes of the glockenspiel.
It may not be the most representative album of his career, but it is certainly the most intimate and personal, flawless in its arrangements and production choices.

Postponed a couple of times during the Covid-19 emergency, and consequently pushing back by a year the promotional tour planned in support of it (with dates also scheduled across Italy), On Sunset finally materialised in the first week of July 2020. A record of manifold influences, a stylistic kaleidoscope that in some respects can be likened to “22 Dreams”. On Sunset opens amid the endless refractions of “Mirror Ball”, a track built from several sections that constantly intersect, as if three or four songs had been synthesised into one, and closes with Weller nailing yet another emphatic ballad, “Rockets”, which renews the tradition of evergreens such as “Wild Wood” and “You Do Something To Me”, enriched in its finale by the precious movements of the orchestra. Orchestrations that recur frequently throughout the record, likely a legacy of the work done on the previous “True Meanings”.
In between, let's be honest, not everything lives up to the monumental past of the English musician. But, despite a couple of filler tracks towards the end, the somewhat tossed-off vaudeville approach of “Equanimity” (featuring Jim Lea of Slade on violin) and the nonetheless pleasant soulful déjà-vu of “Baptiste”, there's plenty of material that qualifies On Sunset as a finely crafted album. What stands out in particular is the sublime “pop” of the sequence “Old Father Tyme” – “Village” – “More”, the latter a lounge-jazz-rock number embellished with Gallicisms that take us back to the golden age of the early Style Council, thanks to the vocal contribution of Julie Gros (Le Superhomard). Among the album credits, one also spots the name of Mick Talbot on Hammond organ. The deluxe edition includes the psych-funk instrumental “4th Dimension”, the negligible “Ploughman” and “I'll Think Of Something”, an orchestral mix of “On Sunset” and the instrumental version of “Baptiste”. Blending old and new, soul and art-pop, sunsets and guitars, psychedelia and strings, Weller thus delivers yet another testament to an unchanged talent: fifteen albums and 62 years under his belt, always carried with unwavering elegance.

Barely ten months later, in May 2021, Weller released a new record of colourful, multifaceted pop. Conceived during the complicated lockdown period, filling the time freed up by the postponement of the European tour dates, Fat Pop was first sketched out remotely by the musicians involved, then completed at his own studios in Surrey as soon as conditions allowed everyone to get back together. As if wanting to exorcise the dramatic nature of the moment, Weller this time focuses on accessible, immediate songs, with an almost “punk” approach to pop material, given the brief running time of the individual tracks. The opening “Cosmic Fringes” even seems to be cut off early to make way for the following “True”, a testament to his desire to display renewed energy, marked by unchanging elegance.
The livelier tracks, however, add little to his vast and prestigious discography; it's the more delicate moments in particular that reveal the author's sublime class: “Glad Times” and “In Better Times” carry on the refined songwriting defined by the immortal “Wild Wood” and “You Do Something To Me”. The closing “Still Glides The Stream”, meanwhile, recalls the grandeur already well tested three years earlier on “True Meanings”, built through the inclusion of strings in the arrangement. The “Volume 1” tag hints at further new material to come.

2021 also saw the release of the live album An Orchestrated Songbook, documenting a celebratory show held on 15 May 2021 at London's Barbican Centre. Accompanying Weller's voice is the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jules Buckley. Setting aside, for once, the more energetic songs, the legend from Woking polishes up some of the most introspective moments of his multifaceted discography. The chosen timeframe is as broad as possible: from “English Rose” and “Carnation”, retrieved from the Jam's repertoire, through to “Glad Times” and “Still Glides The Stream”, taken from the 2021 record “Fat Pop”.
There are plenty of unmissable evergreens, but Weller also shows pride in his more recent output, “On Sunset” (a terrific revival of “Rockets”, a lovely nocturnal saxophone on the title track) and “True Meanings”, which lends itself well to the treatment, having been recorded with substantial orchestral input. There's no shortage of fond memories from the Style Council era either (“My Ever Changing Moods”, the unexpected “It's A Very Deep Sea”), along with the inevitable look back at the highlights of his early solo period (“You Do Something To Me”). Three guests feature, adding little to the extraordinariness of songs that continue to shine with luminous beauty even without any particular dressing-up: Boy George on “You're The Best Thing”, James Morrison on “Broken Stones”, and Celeste – hers is the most interesting contribution – on “Wild Wood”.

Towards the end of 2022 Weller put together Will Of The People, a collection of b-sides, one-off singles and alternate takes sifting through the 2002-2021 period. In the box set, made up of three discs for a total of 31 tracks, standouts include the energy of “Big Brass Buttons”, “Alone” and “Rip The Pages Up”, the horn-driven afrobeat of “Mother Ethiopia” (recorded together with Stone Foundation), the jazzy drive of “Golden Leaves”, the ambitious orchestrations of “Serafina”, and the wholesome electric guitar work of “Portal To The Past”.
There's also room for the demo of “Let Me In”, a song later recorded by young British singer-songwriter Olly Murs, and for covers of “Birthday”, the Beatles evergreen, and “How Sweet It Is”, the soul super-classic made a hit by Marvin Gaye in 1964 and already revisited by James Taylor in 1975. Several remix versions are included, among which worth noting are the noise-psych leanings that emerge from Richard Fearless's work on “Super Lekker Stone”, and the intervention of the Pet Shop Boys, perfect in crafting the long eighties trip that is “Cosmic Fringes”.

Weller has released an album every two years for over four decades, remaining creative and influential without so much as a trace of self-indulgence. And after rock, white soul, R&B, britpop, psychedelia and even hints of kraut-rock scattered haphazardly across the 16 previous albums, it's the purest Sixties sound that dominates the 42 minutes of thoroughly inspired music on 66 (2024), his seventeenth solo work, which also celebrates his 66th birthday.
66 boasts artwork by Sir Peter Blake, the undisputed master of pop art who has worked alongside Weller ever since 1995's “Stanley Road”, and is a close relative of 2018's True Meanings, hence reflective and intimate (lyrically too) to such an extent that, of the twelve tracks present, only a couple can claim to be dominated by electric sounds.
There's gentle rocking on “Jumble Queen”, featuring Noel Gallagher, and on “Soul Wandering” alongside Bobby Gillespie, where the devil turns angelic and sings of the beauty of creation (“And I want to believe/ In something greater than me/ And I’m humbled by the majesty of the sea/ And the stars and your love”).
Everything else is a triumph of Beatles-esque sounds – the opener “Ship of Fools” above all, complete with a marching gait, but also “I Woke Up”, where Macca seems to be at the helm – and echoes of the most inspired Nick Drake, with Van Morrison's “Astral Weeks” played on repeat during the recording sessions.
Highly effective ballads and orchestral arrangements galore, flute solos scattered here and there, sublime baroque pop and old friends like Dr. Robert, with whom he co-writes one of the album's most moving episodes (“Rise Up Singing”). The closer, entrusted to “Burn Out”, sounds like the perfect blend of “Abbey Road” and “The Dark Side Of The Moon”, a cosmopolitan space-pop that delivers a Weller in a state of grace, close to his brightest peak.

A year later came Find El Dorado (2025), a collection of covers of songs dating back roughly fifty years, by various artists (from the Kinks to the Bee Gees, from Richie Havens to the Flying Burrito Brothers), which the Modfather has dusted off with the deft production of his long-time guitarist Steve Cradock, by his side since 1992. Compared to his previous covers album (Studio 150, 2004), it stands out for greater stylistic cohesion and a more intimate atmosphere, even at the cost of sounding a touch monotonous at times. The sound is predominantly acoustic, with influences ranging from folk to country rock through to traditional Irish music, aided by instruments such as the tin whistle, cello, zither and harmonium. Cradock's production helps forge a warm, intimate sound, faithful to the original spirit of the songs yet enriched by consistently well-judged, refined arrangements.
Weller's vocal performance lends the work cohesion, at times giving the impression that he has fully made these songs his own, turning them into creatures of his own making. The versions, however, are generally faithful to the originals, with a few exceptions, such as the looser reinterpretation of “Pinball” by English singer-songwriter/actor Brian Protheroe, enriched by Jacko Peake's smooth sax, and “Lawdy Rolla” by the French one-off band Guerrillas, punctuated by a vintage-sounding organ and Kevin Haynes's psychedelic saxophone.
Special mention goes to the cover of the Bee Gees's “I Started A Joke”, also chosen as the single. Tackling one of the Gibb brothers' pop masterpieces, Weller crafts a poignant, bittersweet ballad, amplifying the emotional intensity of the lyrics with a warm, controlled vocal performance, underpinned by a sumptuous orchestral arrangement that interweaves strings and choirs. A touching reflection on fragility, into which Weller pours his overflowing melancholic streak, adding a touch of unmistakable elegance.
Among the most successful episodes are also the refined reinterpretations of Ray Davies's “Nobody's Fool” (credited to Cold Turkey) and of a “One Last Cold Kiss” that evokes the Irish tradition with poignant intensity, thanks to the contribution of violinist John McCusker and vocalist Amelia Coburn.
On his personal Eldorado, Weller has also brought along some notable guests: Robert Plant duets with him on “Clive's Song”, lending voice and blues harmonica to an evocative atmosphere; Noel Gallagher plays guitar on the title track “El Dorado”, written by Eamon Friel in 1983; Declan O'Rourke shares vocals on the opening “Handouts In The Rain” (Ritchie Havens); and finally, Senegal's Seckou Keita enriches “Journey” with his virtuoso kora, introducing African sounds that further broaden the record's musical spectrum.
Nothing revolutionary or memorable, but the sincere testimony of a musician who remains ever curious and voracious, with his usual (ever changing) mood.

Almost half a century on from the birth of the Jam, Paul Weller can boast an artistic journey that's been qualitatively significant as well as prolific, and can claim a kind of “moral authority” over whole legions of new-millennium pop stars. While not without uncertainties and out-of-focus phases, his hybrid songwriting has stood as one of the high points of British pop music over the last five decades. One of the artists who, today, best embodies a certain kind of increasingly endangered Englishness.

Contributions by Gianni Candellari (“22 Dreams”), Andrea D'Addato (“Sonik Kicks”), Mauro Caproni (“A Kind Revolution”, “66”), Valeria Ferro (“True Meanings”), Claudio Fabretti (“Find El Dorado”)

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