#Paul weller fat pop review full#
“A baby waiting to be born / A sheep that’s ready to be shorn / I’m a king in deathly throes / A lazy cock that never crows / An empty book that’s leather-bound / I’m a lost cause, never found.” The next cut, “True”, is even shorter and more to the point, full of stabbing guitar chords, a soulful saxophone, Weller’s voice heavily treated with reverb, and a guest vocal from Lia Metcalfe whose timbre stands too far apart from Weller’s to be a good match, let alone a great one. “Cosmic Fringes” kicks the door down with a riff, not from a guitar put from a synthesizer, pulsating to a key that could be major or minor while Weller lyrically sorts himself out. The lyrics sound certainly sound like they came from someone whose entire life has been road-tested: “Spend all your life / Just to find out / All that matters / Is close to you.” There’s probably wisdom enough in that, but he follows it all up with “The people you know / The things that you’re shown / Shape our views / The places you’ve been / To follow a dream / In shades of blue.” Fat Pop sure doesn’t begin this bright and sunny. The single “Shades of Blue” leads the pack, and its clockwork rhythm, bouncy McCartney-like piano, and vocal “ooh”s and in the background certainly make it an ideal choice for the first single. Now, less than 12 months after On Sunset, Weller cracks open Fat Pop (Volume 1) for us all to hear and it’s no less vibrant than any music being made by anyone half his age. I can certainly make that case for 2015’s Saturns Pattern as others could easily do the same for any other recent release. As long as Paul Weller has a playground for experimentation and is surrounded by enough chums off which to bounce ideas, we will continue to see new music from him that is not only vital sounding but could rank as some of his best. It wasn’t until I read Ian Snowball’s profile on Weller titled Paul Weller: Sounds from the Studio that I understood what drives the man access to a private studio and an endless string of collaborators. Hell, he can stop altogether if he wants. With a legacy as secure as his, he can afford to slow down. That’s not exactly Guided By Voices, but it’s still rather prolific for a 63-year-old pop veteran whom everyone believed had achieved artistic perfection before he broke up the Jam in 1982. Between 20, the recording artist once anointed as “the Modfather” has released six studio albums (Seven if you include the Jawbone soundtrack). If one hasn’t been keeping up with Weller’s solo career lately, they may become easily overwhelmed by what he’s been up to lately. It’s got a lot of verses and I’ve forgot” – but the gig is mainly devoted to making up for lost time.“Blink and you just might miss it,” sang Paul Weller in 2005. (“It’s a long set,” he promises/warns at the start.) Occasional remarks are slotted in – the Jam’s That’s Entertainment is preceded by a self-deprecating “If you know this, join in. The delay has generated a craving to reconnect with a live audience he and his five-man band march on at 8.30pm and don’t come up for air until 10.30. Eighteen months and two rescheduled dates later, there’s an even newer record, Fat Pop (Volume 1), represented tonight by its thrilling whomp of a title track. Weller should have been here in 2020, touring his then-new On Sunset album. Chronologically he’s an elder statesrocker mentally, he’s as engaged as ever.
His silver bob swishes glossily as he shuttles from guitar to piano.
On the snappiness front, he’s done himself proud: white jeans and a slim-fit racing-green cardigan over a navy polo shirt. Tonight he’s in mod’s spiritual stamping ground, Brighton, crackling through a set that endows Jam, Style Council and early solo material with the same implacable ferocity that marks his 21st-century songs.
#Paul weller fat pop review mod#
S till the ace face 45 years after the Jam released their debut album, Paul Weller continues to uphold the principal tenets of the mod movement: abjure nostalgia, and be the snappiest dresser in town.
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