Paul Weller - True Meanings

The Guardian 80

(Parlophone)

Weller’s 40-odd-year career and ever-changing moods have taken him from the Jam to the Style Council to solo, via punky R&B, funk, soul and house to the genre-shifting experimentalism of the last decade. His gentler acoustic side surfaced as long ago as 1978’s English Rose, but he’s never done an album in that mould, as he does here. The voice, guitar and subtly orchestrated arrangements recall Nick Drake’s work with Robert Kirby, or Weller’s own Above the Clouds. On turning 60, the reluctant nostalgist finally allows time for some reflection, with a set of dreamily autumnal, wistful, even melancholy songs. The humbling Glide finds him passing “through a portal to my youth” to “see the memories unfold”, while the delicately, T Rex-ily soulful Mayfly glances backward and urges: “Let me feel the same way.” Wishing Well distantly echoes Neil Young’s Old Man. Old Castles and Bowie ponder change, self-doubt and mortality. Guests from Lucy Rose to, predictably, Noel Gallagher (unpredictably, on harmonium) can’t clutter songs full of space and air. Love features predominantly, along with lust in Come Along, featuring folk giant Martin Carthy. Unusually, the lyrics aren’t all Weller’s. Villagers’ Conor O’Brien pens the restless Soul Searchers and Erland Cooper provides words to three songs including the standout, White Horses – but Weller inhabits the latter’s musings on parenthood and family beautifully. These aren’t Weller’s greatest songs – Down in the Tube Station, That’s Entertainment et al can rest easy – but they are his loveliest.

The Guardian 80

(Parlophone)

If Paul Weller’s 50s were defined by a welcome musical restlessness – 2008’s 22 Dreams began a run of shapeshifting records that overflowed with vitality and fresh ideas – the now 60-year-old sometime Modfather’s 26th album is a surprise in a different way. A set of gentle pastoral songs, it finds him finally immersing himself in the singer-songwriterly fare that he’s intermittently dipped into since 1978’s English Rose. With backing from his regular band, plus guest spots from Martin Carthy and Rod Argent among others, Weller sounds at ease with this more introspective material, the lush orchestration acting as a perfect foil to his voice.

The aptly named Glide is sublime, with echoes of Cat Stevens in its lullaby-like simplicity. Gravity is equally lovely, Weller crooning “In my heart you’ll always be/ The greatest love that I could feel” against a backdrop of strings. He saves the best until last: White Horses, one of three co-writes with Erland Cooper of Erland and the Carnival (including, oddly, Bowie, on which Weller sings Cooper’s lyrics, making it seem like a tribute at one remove), gradually builds to a stirring climax with real emotional heft.