Apparently he'd been getting into Neil Young, smoking joints and making pilgrimages to Nick Drake's grave. Paul Weller, Mod icon turned R&B/soul crooner emerged as the UK's preeminent "singer/songwriter" with 1992's "Wild Wood." (Who said 'writer's block?')Paul Weller - Wild Wood (Mp3)
Paul Weller - Has My Fire Really Gone Out? (Mp3)
Paul Weller - Foot Of The Mountain (Mp3)
Paul Weller - All The Pictures On The Wall (Mp3)
Paul Weller - Hung Up (Mp3)
9 comments:
Thanks old boy.
Some may see this as a hand grenade lobbed in stir things up but, to my mind, Into Tomorrow and Sunflower were his best of that early bunch. Most of Wild Wood I consider overrated - it left me colder than a polar bear's bottom.
I suspect I am alone in this thought?
Shurely Cafe Bleu is the meisterwork??
...he said provocatively....
Yep DVD, you may very well be alone on that one.
And yes Davy, Cafe Bleu is just grand, but less "singer/songwriter-y" than my (self-imposed) theme would allow. I always thought of the Council as more of a 'band.' (Hi Mick!)
I'm sorry, I completely forgot that you are searching for singer songwriters it's OK to like...I humbly apologise and blame the wine and the fact my veg lasagne is slow cookin' (empty stomach increases rate of alcohol absorption) :(
I love 'Country' - always have admired the pastoral in Weller's oeuvre... (Ahem, it's green down there around Woking).
I always thought Wild Wood was PW's most accessible album for Americans or, in other words, his least British sounding record. The blend of acoustic numbers, psychedelic tunes, and all out rockers should have gotten the album some radio play, and perhaps in another era it would have been a huge hit here. Should have been. Many of the instruments on the album - Hammond organs, MiniMoogs, Mellotrons, Wurlitzers, flutes, and horns - create such a groovy swirling sound. I love this album. I even dig the sentimental Moon on Your Pajamas. Is it my favorite Weller solo album? Don't have one, but Wild Wood is up there and certainly shines way ahead of Heliocentric, Illumination, and As Is Now. Saw him touring Wild Wood at the tiny Lupo's in Providence, RI. This was the period when he finally had enough solo material to drop Style Council and Jam songs from his sets. Favorite memory from the Wild Wood era: driving from Boston to CT late on a Friday night in a girlfriend's car. She asleep, me slowly turning up the volume on the stereo. By the time Shadow of the Sun came on it was very loud and I'm singing/screaming "I plan to have it all while I'm still young!" Still do. Just not young anymore. Can’t wait for the new Weller double album due this June.
In my opinion Wildwood suffers least from what detracts from his solo career- authenticity. I hate to use that word in a pejorative sense, but the Dad-Rock that Weller plays is what I grew up in music avoiding. There is nothing wrong with classic, and singer-songwriter, and The Basics. It all just seems to coalesce as unadventurous to me. And, as one of my heroes I want Weller to play around with genres, politics and to push buttons. EVEN at their worse, The Style Council (and believe me they have some bad songs and bad albums- I have the box set) were ambitious in their failure. Finally, in Weller’s defense, as they say, bad Weller is likely 90% better than most people’s good. I guess I’m just attacking Weller’s genre, but I just expected more. When you look at some of Weller’s contemporary’s you can see how people like Costello, Lowe, Richman, and heck even a Neil Young keep it more real by keeping it less. -Shamus
It's good to discuss and debate what clearly has meant a great deal to us over the years - and hopefully will continue in the future.
The 'least British sounding record' is a point well made and, being a Brit, is something I take for granted. I am a non-musician and do not appreciate the musicianship involved.
However I know what I like, and all that twiddling of knobs on later solo albums distracted me to a bereft glazed-over state.
My problem stems from never tasting the Weller outdoor air as 'freshly' as I did on Tales From The Riverbank or even Wasteland!
In any event, I still subscribe to the 'hope in our hearts' backdrop.
I have to say while its a great album, wild wood falls short for me. I'm a die hard weller fan and the peak in my opinion is the first solo album. A huge amount of the instruments are played by weller, giving vent to his dissapointment/anger at being dropped from his label. The depth of this album is breathtaking and has a certain quality of its own. A culmination of a few years in the wilderness, this record sums up a moment in his career so perfectly, personally,i find it hard to see how he can surpass it.
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