Whether Weller's fire had really gone out or he'd merely succumbed to midlife doldrums, a refresher was urgently required. Last year’s covers album, Studio 150, was no world-beater, but the break from routine evidently yielded dividends. As Is Now is the result: a work of rejuvenating power, on which Weller and his long-serving band attain a new sense of purpose and focus. Sharper songwriting is key. Trailed by two lean and seething singles, "From The Floorboards Up" and "Come On/Let's Go", As Is Now has much to live up to. And though the double whammy of those singles is the album's highpoint, their clarity and directness are also its hallmark.
From "All On A Misty Morning", a brooding ellision of Drake/Hardin folk blues, to The Small Faces-style knees-up, "Here's The Good News", there's nothing stylistically that Weller hasn't done before. But the route, first mapped out on his 1993 solo breakthrough, Wildwood, has seldom been pursued with such confidence or sensitivity. Weller the changingman emerges as belligerent rocker (the great "Sing you little fuckers, sing like you got no choice," line in "Come On/Let's Go"), rose-tinted romantic (the soul-searching "Fly Little Bird") and budding mystic (the string-laced finale "The Pebble And The Boy").
Perhaps the portentous "Pan", with its cod-God-prog lyric, is a change too far. But elsewhere, songs at either end of the stylistic spectrum are given a keen sense of conviction. Even the Gallic, jazzy timbres explored in The Style Council get a breezy makeover on "Roll Along Summer", while the epic slap bass groove of "Bring Back The Funk Parts 1 And 2" is a persuasive overhaul of his soulboy roots.
As Is Now’s title suggests that Weller remains an unapologetic Modernist, but musically, he remains connected to all the vital elements in his past. An icon reawakened.
GAVIN MARTIN
Oxon
The Modfather rocks again! As Is Now is the best album since Stanley Road. It covers every aspect of great Weller. No one will be disappointed with the result.
Rogaland
Letter to Paul Weller. (Uncut readers may read if you like)
Paul,
as a guy who grew at the same time as you, in the same area (well, same end of the country) in, from what I can gather from your interview, the same social conditions I have to say....PLEASE.. grow up and move on!
I lived in a rented house too, my mother was in service too, my dad nicked stuff from work to complement our household too..it was the way things were then. I get royally pissed off when you try to paint this picture of Dickensian deprivation, it wasn't like that and you know it!
I liked the Jams music, it had urgency and I could relate to the lyrics and, as we were the same age I was willing to ignore the oppressed-working-class bullshit because, well hell I was 20 and it sounded good, true or not. It still sounds good actually, if a little toe-curling in places but it has to stay where it belongs ie. filed under nostalgia along with Ziggy Stardust etc.
I dont blame you for jumping on the bandwagon at the time, let's face it you couldn't fail, I mean Thatcher was easy to hate! It's just that you were never very convincing as an angry young man and now you're getting on a bit, you just come across as a morose, narcissistic dickhead....at least to those who grew up with you.
What really pisses me off is that the younger readers will take it as fact, that we really did grow up in this depressed urban wasteland devoid of hope. I mean, come on...the estates of leafy Surrey weren't exactly Calcutta or South Central LA were they? Now if you'd have been born a real inner city a bit further north, or a generation earlier and been forced to go to war, or been an orphan instead of having no communication with your grandparents you'd have had something to whine about. I mean, "us 4 against the world"....for fucks sake, give me a break!
To end on a high note, I enjoyed seeing your opinions on your fellow award winners. Most of your contemporaries get all luvvy at our age, good to see you tell it how you see it, I especially liked the U2 comment, talk about overblown pompous assholes...still, I'll save that for another rant.
Steve, Southampton
New Brunswick
while i have yet to hear the new album in it's entirety, i can't help but be amused by record reviewers' historiographical recollection of artists' past releases. i remember uncut raving about 'illumination' when it was released, as quite possibly being his most mature record to date (a perspective with which i agree wholeheartedly). now however, 'illumination' is confusedly remembered as a collection of half-hearted, half-realised efforts, while weller's dissatisfying and lukewarm covers hold-over is neglected in the review altogether.
that said, what i have heard of 'as is now' is as the reviewer recounts - a powerful and potent restatement of intent. admittedly, the record seems to relax into the weller well here and there(there was more than one hook or melody i recognized from his back catologue as i listened through much of it at our local indie record shop), the album would appear to boast several modern classics. 'from the floorboards up' is indeed a punctuating moment in the album - one amongst many.
but the icon reawakening? perhaps a more apt metaphor would be the icon reawakened ('illumination'), tripped up getting out of bed ('studio 150') and now confidently stood up once again, on his way for a deep, black morning coffee ('as is now').
but then again, i seemed to be alone in my enjoyment of 'heliocentric' as well, so what do i know?
cleveland
I like it. All On A Misty Morning is a really good song. Everyone I talk to seems to like this album and I can't really fault much of it.
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