The devil’s in the details, and sometimes the devil doesn’t free his mind enough to write a strong chorus. Compare the following Weller track and consider how Curtom-era Mayfield songs often fell a bit short of their desired target while early ’70s Marvin Gaye singles more often hit the moon with their memorable choruses.
Paul Weller, “Empty Ring”
Speaking of Gaye, one of the album’s instrumentals (it’s not easy padding a double album), “Song for Alyce”, sounds like incidental music from Trouble Man. I picture a Very Serious Weller hunched over the mixing console, Gitane in hand, while a 23-year-old engineer dials up a round of digital effects from Quincy Jones’ ’70s television soundtrack work.
Paul Weller, “Where’er Ye Go”
Believe it or not – and this gets back to my Lou Reed comparison – I can’t help but love Paul Weller. As with Reed, I love his effort and his entire self-made artist saga. We should all work as hard at thinking we’re working hard in our artistic endeavors as have Weller and Reed. Believe it or not, 22 Dreams is not unlistenable or without merit. “All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)”, despite a set of lyrics that fails to rise above what’s contained in the song’s title, is a celebration of slowly pounding floor tom beats and tasty guitar clusters that I can get behind. The jaunty, jazzy “Black River”, with brushed snare, tinkling piano, slide guitar, and cool harmonies sounds like something The Kinks or Small Faces would have done. And despite all reasonable warnings against once angry young rockers recording piano ballads (and trust me, there are a few cautionary tales on this album), the super tender, neo-folk song “Where’er Ye Go” is one of the album’s highlights. Weller sounds like he’s put in a simple, hard day’s work for once, with no need to call attention to himself and his hopes for the next-available bonus. More like this and another track toward the end of this unnecessarily long day at the office, “Sea Spray”, and Paul can treat himself and his family to something fun over the holidays.
As a fellow Modfather fan, a very perceptive post, Mr. Mod. I got my copy a few weeks ago & it strikes me as your typical Weller album w/ a bit o’ diversion. The one thing I don’t understand is the big whoop about this being a “double album”. It’s 68 minutes long on a single CD. Most albums today are usually 55-70 minutes long. Also, isn’t the concept of an “album” becoming obsolete in this digital download age?
P.S.: I dig the J. Beckett/J. White thing on the top.
No, no, no, no NO. Seriously, busting on “Empty Ring” while singling out the corn-studded “Where’er Ye Go” for approval is just WRONG.
Come on, Mod — are you telling me you can take Weller seriously when he (suppressing serious guffaw here) croons into the mic, head upturned, one hand just touching one ear, eyes closed in gentle contemplation, “…where’er ye go…”?
WHERE’ER YE GO?! Who the fuck says “where’er ye go”?! Chaucer? 19th-century Irish potato farmers? Even Gordon Lightfoot had more taste than that.
If you can explain to me how using that insincere, bathetic olde englishe-ism *doesn’t* ruin that song (if not make it outright hilarious), I’ll reconsider. I mean, come ON.
I need to hear from you on this. I’m really concerned.
HVB
Futhermore…
Two observations about Weller the 50-something dude:
1. That’s got to be the worst-looking hair in all of today’s rock and roll. And that’s saying something!
2. I swear, he looks and sounds like a gum-chewing Nigel Tufnel in that interview segment.
I love me some Paul Weller, but I gotta call ’em like I see ’em.
You’re batting 1 for 2 so far, HVB! I know that the song I singled out is hard to take seriously for the title alone, but as a piece of music it floats into my ears and makes an impression. He put way too much effort into that title, but the song itself flows better than most of this stuff.
I used to buy all of Weller’s solo records. I liked some more than others. Somehow my interest in him just finally dribbled away. I was surprised to discover I had his last one (As Is Now 2005). I’ve got to say these tracks here did nothing to tempt me. The guy’s a pro, but I just don’t think he has anything to say to me anymore.
The hair is pretty embarrassing, and the Tufnelocity of the interview is undeniable.
Q: What is there left for you to do?
A: Just carry on livin’ really.
“Tufnelocity”…RTH Glossary term anyone?