PAUL WELLER - JAM - STYLE COUNCIL - As Is Now

Good news from planet Paul Weller: just a year after the much-debated covers album "Studio 150", which followed a string of patchy records, the Cappuccino Kid is back in action with "As Is Now", celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Jam - the band that launched Britain's most celebrated mod into orbit - in the best possible way, a feat unmatched since the Who first exploded onto the scene.

So what is Paul Weller like these days?

"As Is Now" returns to the established blend of white rock and black undertones that has by now become the true trademark of this English artist, the hallmark of a thoroughly personal and instantly recognisable sound.

The album is getting mixed reviews, but to our ears it marks yet another triumphant step in a career that's not only brilliant but extraordinarily prolific.

Weller is keen to prove he hasn't run out of ideas, and he comes out swinging with an excellent opening sequence made up of "Blink And You'll Miss It" and "Paper Smile" - sharp, direct, driving tracks also chosen to open the European promotional tour, as if to underline just how strongly he believes in these songs.

The album gets off on the right foot straight away, not least because what follows is the irresistible "Come On-/Let's Go" and the playful divertissement of "Here's The Good News", with Paul superb on piano and the horns providing a delicious counterpoint.

There's an atmosphere of great joy and harmony here, with the band now thoroughly road-tested and tight-knit: the trusty (since his days with Style Council) Steve White on drums, Steve Cradock on lead guitar, Damon Minghella on bass, plus a horn section led by the equally loyal Jacko Peake on sax, and the Gustav Klimt String Quartet making the strings shine with a light of their own. The chemistry is confirmed by the way the album came together too: "As Is Now" was recorded live in the studio in just two weeks.

The album's middle stretch has drawn the most criticism, and it is indeed slower and more uneven, but it still hides gems of refined pop like "The Start Of Heaven", whose crystalline arpeggios revive the tradition of Weller as a writer of unbeatable melodies (remember "You Do Something To Me"?). The following "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 highly elegant jazzy up-tempo numbers, and "Savages" could well be the pipe dream of the Gallagher brothers.

And hats off when, out of the hat, come the full-blooded rock 'n' roll of "From The Floor Boards Up", which puts every pseudo baby-rock band with "the" in its name to shame, and the over seven minutes of "Bring Back The Funk", as if to remind us where the acid-jazz phenomenon began.

On an album containing songs like these, you can even forgive the yawns (classy ones, mind you…) brought on by "Fly Little Bird" and the closing "The Peeble And The Boy".

The digipack packaging is beautifully done: inside, it reproduces the lyrics in Weller's own handwriting, complete with chord sketches, crossings-out and marginal notes, revealing the "work in progress" behind the finished product. Also included is a DVD with the videos for "Come On-Let's Go" and "From The Floor Boards Up", plus some footage from the album's recording sessions and a roughly ten-minute short film, all at no extra cost.

A touching dedication is made to the memory of Jim Capaldi, the much-missed drummer of Traffic, one of the bands (on a par with Small Faces and Kinks) that most shaped Weller's approach to music; with "As Is Now" he delivers his most accomplished and mature album since "Stanley Road".

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10/10/2006