Paul Weller - On Sunset review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

The Guardian 0

(Polydor)
With enough melodies to appease the feather-cut-dads fanbase, and enough experimentation to slake his own curveball tastes, this is have-your-cake-and-eat-it Weller

In 2014, Paul Weller released his umpteenth compilation, surveying a career now into its sixth decade. More Modern Classics came with sleeve notes written by Weller himself, which ended with a gruff message to his audience: “Don’t be scared of the new, don’t get bogged down in the cliches of, ‘Oh it’s not as good as …’ or you’ll miss out on what is NOW.” You could say that’s a bit rich coming from Weller, a revivalist from the start, who furthermore could be found in the midst of his 90s renaissance informing the late music writer David Cavanagh that “everything’s shit after 68”. Then again, the Weller who admonished his fans against looking back was in the middle of one of his periodic, confounding career resets.

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