The summery pop of Glad Times has all the bittersweet languor of Style Council, while the transcendent Better Times finds Craddock squeezing strange tones from his guitar and Weller sounding free as a bird and alive to the possibilities. It’s his most vibey and spacey album in years. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. We need your consent to load this YouTube content We use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. On jumpy guitar pop opener Cosmic Fringes (which may or not be a reference to Weller’s luxuriant lockdown tresses) he sounds like Parklife era Albarn meets an extra leery Ian Dury, and the title track is an ode to the power and joy of music itself ("whose been a friend when you really needed one? Who gives a f*** when no-one really does?") that revisits the far out excursions of his debut solo album. There’s even a tribute to Iggy Pop on the fantastically syncopated Moving Canvas.
Guest vocals come from Lia Metcalfe of Liverpudlian act The Mysterines, and the great Andy Fairweather Low on the jazzy strut of Testify. Lush orchestral arrangements brush up against flute, brass, and some great guitar breaks from his long-time musical foil Steve Craddock. Making better use of lockdown than some old troopers we could mention, Weller recorded these songs in down time (he also found time to produce Declan O’Rourke’s glorious new album, Arrivals) and they meld soul, psychedlic rock, and pastoral ballads with the hand and the ear of a music polymath.Īrriving just under a year after last year’s On Sunset, Weller journeys to the outer reaches of his mind on an experimental set of mostly three-minute pop tunes designed to stand alone as singles. We've always known that underneath Paul Weller’s cool, mod exterior lies the heart of a true poet but rarely has he sounded so free and alive to the possibilities of music and life than on his exuberant 16th solo album. They’re all interesting concepts and ideas that work, but together they create a disjointed and bizarre listen.Like a shark, Weller moves ever forward on another album bursting with a lust for life
It’s as if one day he wrote something completely new, the next day he forgot he wasn’t in The Style Council anymore, and the day after he travelled back to the '60s. The album certainly demonstrates the drive and creativity Weller still has after an almost 45-year career, but someone should’ve been there to keep his creativity in check. The 12 tracks on Fat Pop simply don’t go together in one serving.
Everything is nice on its own, but they don’t all go together on one plate. It’s like going to a carvery expecting a delicious Sunday roast, and then you get served a plate with a little bit of meat, veg and gravy, but also chocolate, ketchup, and fish. The variety and genre bending present on the record might be interesting to some, but it’s jarring. Instead, we receive a little bit of everything he’s ever done, as if he created an original greatest hits album.įat Pop isn’t a dull listen, but it’s still rather difficult. Unfortunately, that vibe only appears on the cover and the opening track. At first when the album was announced alongside the release of “Cosmic Fringes”, the record seemed like it would take a cosmic pop approach which would’ve been something new and exciting for Weller. There isn’t really a bad track, they’ve all got good qualities in their own right, but the record as a whole is a muddled mishmash. However, Paul Weller’s spark has blown up all over the place. Written and recorded over the first UK lockdown last year, it's a credit to the amazing ways artists adapted to the pandemic without losing their spark and it shows with a number of brilliant tracks such as the funky opener “Cosmic Fringes”, the beautiful acoustic track “Cobweb Connections” and the cool classic rock inspired “Moving Canvas”. His new record Fat Pop certainly isn’t a bad record.
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