Paul Weller is the star of our latest free CD, Movin On, available with the September 2025 issue of Uncut, in shops now.
Paul Weller is the star of our latest free CD, Movin On, available with the September 2025 issue of Uncut, in shops now.
The 10-track album includes rarities, deep cuts and B-sides, including blistering six-minute closer “I Work In The Clouds”.
There have been few artists who have had a career quite like Weller’s – not least in his stunning move into kaleidoscopic experimentation in his middle age. After last year’s impressive 66, he’s now returned with Find El Dorado, a covers album that’s much more than that: a “deeply personal new album of reinterpretations”, it shines a light on some of Weller’s own favourite songs, from the well-known – The Kinks’ “Nobody’s Fool” to the Bee Gees’ “I Started A Joke” – to the obscure – especially “Lawdy Rolla”, by French studio group The Guerillas.
To mark the new record, we’ve put together, in conjunction with the man himself, this survey of rarities and album tracks from one of his golden periods of exploration. It spans the eclectic, overdriven funk and fuzz rock of 2015’s Saturns Pattern, his gritty 2017 soundtrack to Jawbone and the psychedelic soul and jazz of the same year’s A Kind Revolution, and the acoustic, elegiac True Meanings (2018), drenched in strings.
Along the way, we’ll hear tender balladry give way to motorik frenzy, electronic gospel melt into dub, and much more. Plus, there’s a taste of the new Find El Dorado, courtesy of the superb “Lawdy Rolla”. Dig in.
See below for more on the tracklisting…
1 Glide (Instrumental)
We begin with this version from the deluxe expanded edition of 2018’s True Meanings, a waltzing acoustic reverie as gorgeous as anything Weller’s ever put his name to. As the fingerpicked notes from two acoustic guitars entangle, harp and pastoral strings blossom, before the whole thing’s done in just over two minutes.
2 The Ballad Of Jimmy McCabe
Hard to believe, but Jawbone (Music From The Film) is the first ever soundtrack Weller has tried his hand at. It’s not to be slept on, though: one of the highlights is this robust acoustic ballad, hinting at the desperation and struggles of the film’s lead character. The music suggests an ancient folk ballad, which works to place McCabe’s struggles in a long line of hard times for the working classes.
3 I Spy
This slice of lilting folk-rock debuted as the B-side of Saturns Pattern’s “Going My Way”, but also appeared on 2022’s collection of rarities, Will Of The People. It’s perfectly poised, reminiscent of the bucolic psychedelia of Traffic with its lazy sway, prominent bass guitar, ’60s organ, piano, Echoplex effects and – of course – Weller’s peerless soulful vocals.
4 Sun Goes
The B-side to Saturns Pattern’s title track, “Sun Goes” is another demonstration of Weller’s melancholic, acoustic side – and yet, there’s a deeply lovely touch of cosmic Scouse psychedelia to it, from the sea shanty chords and the wandering electric lead guitar to the spaghetti western choir. It’s proof, should it be needed, that Weller’s muse flourishes within almost any style.
5 Hopper (White Label Remix)
A reworking that first appeared on the deluxe version of 2017’s A Kind Revolution, this remix turns the New Orleans shuffle of the original into a piece of atmospheric dub. It proves to be a fine accompaniment to Weller’s vocals, hymning the magic of Edward Hopper’s late-night, nightlife paintings. “In late night bars the ghost of Hopper/Paints in such melancholy colours…”
6 The Soul Searchers (Richard Hawley Remix)
Opening True Meanings, this co-write and collaboration with Villagers’ Conor O’Brien came on like Pentangle collaborating with Ennio Morricone; in its remix by the Sheffield songwriter and guitarist Richard Hawley, it’s given a pulsing disco workout. Over tight drums and looping bass, Weller’s vocal echoes serenely before lush, sour strings flood the dancefloor.
7 Movin On
The lead single from True Meanings is one of the most heartfelt, pure songs Weller has written. There’s no time for experimentation here, no room for genre collisions that would blunt the focused lyrics: “I’ve got love all around/I don’t need nothing else…” Instead, his soaring vocals are backed by acoustic guitar, jazzy drums and the kind of ornate strings and horns that surrounded Nick Drake on Bryter Layter (no wonder, then, that Weller worked with Drake’s arranger Robert Kirby on 2000’s Heliocentric).
8 Praise If You Wanna
Taken from the deluxe edition of A Kind Revolution, this brief snippet – a mantra meets jam, like something from the third LP of All Things Must Pass cut down to its essence – is written by Weller and all of his band, including longtime lead guitarist Steve Cradock. A bluesy gospel shuffle, scattershot with some deliciously retro guitar runs, it builds and builds until a rising synth note brings it to a premature close.
9 Lawdy Rolla
Seemingly cat-nip for Weller, this obscure single by French group The Guerillas mixed jazz, soul and rock before vanishing into cult obscurity. Weller has brought it back into the light on his new covers album, Find El Dorado, and toned down its more fractious chants into a rolling, swinging groove. At key moments, especially the transcendent coda, London-born saxophonist Awoifaleke (Kevin) Haynes weaves spiritual, sinuous lead lines.
10 I Work In The Clouds
A hard to find rarity, only available currently on the Japanese edition of Saturns Pattern, this barnstorming krautrock epic (spanning almost six minutes) deserves to be heard more widely. Again written with all of Weller’s regular band, it pirouettes between two chords, the spoken-word verses painting a faintly dystopian picture of disconnection in a high-rise office. Unhinged lead guitar spits and sparks over the relentless drums and bass, thrillingly raw.
