Life Begins At 50

The career highlights of Paul Weller were an age ago, right? Vital albums penned by a sullen youth and his associates from Woking, and brief flashes of inspiration from a collective consciousness society with more style than substance. And to that a pick and mix of the best tracks from eight solo studio records, and you’d be inclined to think of the Modfather (come on, who thought that one up?) as merely a fixture of the British pop scene, venerable, solid, worthy, picking up ‘legend’ gongs at awards ceremonies and living, quite comfortably thank you, off his back catalogue. Safe and sound. You know what you’re going to get with Weller.

By his own admission, the short sharp statement of the ‘As Is Now’ record felt like an end. A few above average songs, good enough. Ending a career on a covers collection would have been shabby, but “there you are, I’ve done a nice one to keep you happy”. But he couldn’t stay away.. and if ‘22 Dreams‘ is the result of mooching around in a studio and letting the ideas flow, then he should work like that all the time in future.

Because he’s only gone and made one of.. no, probably THE best album he’s ever made. Sure, the familiar rock’n'soul stomps are all present and correct, but Weller injects an extra level of commitment to the proceedings. It’s the stylistic variation of the record that’s so staggering.. moody balladry, folk and jazz inflections, bleeps and squiggles and out-of-focus psychedelia.. spoken word, no less! 21 tracks (the 22nd dream is a poem in the liner notes) of ‘album as album’.. a complete statement.

I’m a Weller fan of old, but this surprises and delights me. I thought he’d lost the spark. I’m glad he hasn’t.