Here we are then,
mkoasis. My very belated attempt to rank Weller's solo albums (not including the new one) in order of preference, with some thoughts I had during my sprint through them all last week.
1) 22 Dreams (2008) ★★★★1/2
Can't quite award it full marks because, like a lot of albums over 60 minutes long, there is some stuff on there that I could do without; and, as is usually the case, most of the tracks that sound the most like filler are bundled up near the end, which leaves you coming away a bit disappointed, even while you had a blast listening to the rest of it. But it is still a wonderful array of different musical styles and disciplines, and the way it all fits together to make one whole is a credit to how well it's sequenced. Off this last listen, I was delighted by some of the transitions between tracks, such as '22 Dreams' into 'All I Wanna Do'.
2) Heliocentric (2000) ★★★★
In answer to your question from the other day, I think 'Back in the Fire' is quite special. But the point of Heliocentric is less to do with the individual songs than the effect of them all together. Whenever I listen to this album, I'm struck by its freshness and collective vision. There's clearly been much more care gone into the production than previous albums. And Weller's singing has improved: he's trying different things with his voice now, not just belting everything out (and it's the most cockney he's sounded since The Jam, so credit to him for that). I'd like to give it four-and-a-half stars really, as I think it's not far off being a minor classic; but, without that one killer track that I can't listen to enough (for which 22 Dreams has several), it'll have to be just four.
3) Paul Weller (1992) ★★★★
I love the energy of this album. What gives it the edge on Paul's other 90s albums for me are the moments sprinkled throughout which, every time I listen to the album after having not heard it for a while, make my heart skip a beat and the hairs on my arms stand on end, like the guitar break in 'I Didn't Mean to Hurt You', the "Hey hey!" backing vocals during the final verse of 'Amongst Butterflies', and that bit in 'Bitterness Rising', Finding your space, waiting your time to be what you wanna be. Just be! The album could have perhaps used a bit more variety, in songwriting as well as production, and I'd rather Weller hadn't shouted quite so many of his lyrics, thus beginning a trend that would carry on throughout the rest of the 90s albums; but it's still one of his finest collections of songs, solo or at any other time in his career.
4) Wake Up the Nation (2010) ★★★★
I like to think of 22 Dreams, this, and Sonik Kicks as Weller's Bowie trilogy, as it was around this time that he came out as a born again Bowie fan and acknowledged the influence of Bowie on his recent songwriting. Perhaps, as a Bowie nut myself, that's why I like it so much. It also contains some of the most off the wall tracks Weller has put out. It always seemed to me that by the time of Sonik Kicks Weller was trying to cultivate an image of fearless experimentalism that didn't entirely correspond with his songwriting output; but this album is genuinely odd in places in a way that--when it works--is quite thrilling. My only complaint is that the album doesn't really end. 'Two Fat Ladies' is no more a closer than The Jam's cover of 'Heatwave' was.
5) Stanley Road (1995) ★★★★
Great songs obviously, but it sounds a bit bland to me now, and long--even though, at just over 50 minutes, it's a fairly average length for that time. The trouble is the likes of Oasis and Blur and Pulp, who also made albums over 50 minutes at that time, were in their twenties and full of new ideas: Weller was pushing 40, on his fourteenth album in eighteen years. So it's a great album for finding Weller in a purple patch, clearly revelling at being back on top against all odds, but it's also a product of its time, and the unfortunate conservative tendencies associated with Britpop.
6) Wild Wood (1993) ★★★★
Similar to Stanley Road, I think the production stops this one from ascending to the heights it looked set to reach from the vantage point of its fantastic opening tracks, 'Sunflower' through to 'Wild Wood' (my favourite song of Weller's solo career). But I also think the tracklist is not as strong as we might remember it (I'm referring to the original UK release without 'Hung Up' as the closer, by the way. If 'Hung Up' had been on it from the start, I might rank it above Stanley Road). There're quite a few tunes, particularly on the second side, which don't move me much either way, and after I've finished listening to them I forget how they went. Was 'Shadow of the Sun' really deserving of its nearly eight minute runtime? But, more positively, it does retain a lot of the energy of his debut, and there's more of a mix of songs, in a way setting the template for every album (barring True Meanings) that would follow.
7) Sonik Kicks (2012) ★★★★
I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this album when I heard it last. I've always thought it sounded fantastic, but I'd got it into my head that the songs on the second half of the album didn't quite live up to the promise of the first. Listening again, I think it holds together really well, except for right at the end. I've never been able to get along with 'Paperchase', and 'Be Happy Children' is no 'Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea' or 'Moon on Your Pyjamas'. But elsewhere 'The Attic' and 'That Dangerous Age' are just fantastic songs, and 'Kling I Klang' is thrillingly manic in the same way as the best moments of Wake Up the Nation. Bang! Bang! Bang! shot the passerby. "I don't care!" cried the vicar's wife. "They're only numbers melting in the ice."
8) A Kind Revolution (2017) ★★★★
A better collection of songs than Saturns Pattern, and more truthful perhaps than Sonik Kicks. Whether he's teasing out delicious funk on 'She Moves with the Fayre' or a playful tribute to a famous painter, it all feels very Weller. There's no doubting the authorship of this material. And fine material it is. If only it sounded more vibrant, I'd rank it higher. However, I can't look past how over-produced some of it is (was the percussion loop on 'The Cranes Are Back' really necessary?), and how muddy some of mixes are. Also it's really quietly mastered. That's not terribly important: you can just turn it up, after all. But it is frustrating, considering how good each of Weller's albums dating back to 22 Dreams sounded, that the material here doesn't always get the sound it deserved.
9) Saturns Pattern (2015) ★★★★
Purely on how it sounds, this album deserves full marks. It's a sumptuous sounding record; there's always something interesting going on, but it never feels claustrophobic. The big drums were a great idea, and put to shame all those 80s records which had big drums that sounded awful. This one is also notable for being Weller's only album with fewer than ten tracks on it. Those albums are tricky to get right, because there's a greater need for every song to land. With a Beatles album, for instance, it doesn't matter if you didn't like one, two, three, or even four songs off it, because there're probably another ten to go at which you might prefer. And I do think Weller gets tripped up by this a bit with Saturns Pattern. I've never thought 'Long Time' was particularly interesting, even with handclaps and electronic squiggling. And, while I know the idea was to have the songs veer off on tangents, as if there were multiple songs contained within each one, I'm not sure tracks like 'Phoenix' and 'In the Car...' are strong enough as compositions to warrant such elongation. But the five or six songs that do work for me I like very much.
10) Heavy Soul (1997) ★★★1/2
A fantastic front three, and I like the run of tracks from 'Science' to 'As You Lean into the Light' as well, but the material is quite thin elsewhere. Never got into the singles 'Brushed' and 'Friday Steet' (though why 'Brushed' was made a single I haven't the foggiest), and 'Driving Nowhere' and 'Mermaids' are merely OK. 'I Should Have Been There to Inspire You' is a lovely song with a fantastic lyric, Lennonesque in its brutal honesty. However, the arrangement is a problem. Was that guitar solo really necessary, given what the song's about? Add to that the lack of any sensitivity in Weller's vocal, and you do get a nagging sensation that maybe the accusations of Dadrock levelled at him around this time were not entirely unfounded.
11) True Meanings (2018) ★★★1/2
I'm glad Weller made this album. His accoustic stuff doesn't tend to be my favourite ('Wild Wood' excepted), but it's good to have this album standing alone in his catalogue as the one time where he reigned in his genre-hopping impulses and stuck to one discipline to express how he felt at that point in time. Bit long, though. I've enjoyed it much on walks outside in the sunshine, but sitting down to listen to it you wish they'd been a bit more thorough in the editing process. And I've knocked a half star off my rating because, as much as I appreciate him collaborating with other artists to broaden his lyrical and musical vocabularly, I think the songs with him singing lyrics provided by Erland Cooper are slightly awkward. Well intentioned, but I'm not sure they worked too well.
12) As Is Now (2005) ★★★1/2
This album comes out swinging: 'Blink and You'll Miss It' has more urgency than any rocker he'd written since 'Heavy Soul, Pt. 1'; 'Come On/Let's Go' likewise has a real drive to it; and there's much to enjoy in 'Here's the Good News' and 'The Start of Forever', etc. It does get bogged down about halfway through, though, with the misguided 'Pan'. There are good songs in the second half that try to get it moving again, but it never quite works because there isn't a solid run of three or more good tracks like there was at the front of the album. Shorn of a few tracks, taking the run time down to 40/45 minutes, and this would've been a pretty strong effort. As it is it's more sure-footed than Illumination, but you'd still never guess Weller was about to produce possibly one of his best albums next up.
13) Illumination (2002) ★★★
There are noticably fewer songs on this album that I find myself returning to with any regularity than with the albums above. It's pretty much just 'All Good Books' which has racked up serious playtime from me. I think that song is so admirable. It would have been easy in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 to write something wrathful and apocalyptic, but Weller had the grace and the intelligence to swerve those reactionary impulses and instead try to seperate the good stuff from religious thought from the actions of fantatics. I also love 'One X One' (with our Noel playing some very rudimentary drums, I believe?), though it goes missing looking for a chorus and never quite finds its way back home.
14) Studio 150 (2004) ★★★
Being a covers album, this album doesn't further Weller's artistry much; but that is the problem with covers albums, their dubious rights to exist in the first place. When it's good (as with 'Wishing on a Star'), it's an enjoyable way to spend some time; when it's bad (as with the lifeless redition of 'All Along the Watchtower'), the meaninglessness of the endeavour becomes apparent. But it could've been a lot worse. He certainly didn't embarrass himself.
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5