Paul Weller: 22 Dreams - 2008

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Paul Weller broke the mould of several albums in a row following a sort of similar format (although nowhere near as formulaic as the accusations that have been regularly levelled suggest, to be honest) and came up with this cornucopia of an album. 

It is a veritable "chocolate box" of different styles, ambiences, moods and musical themes. Yes, it is also somewhat sprawling and probably goes on just a few tracks too long. A cull of just a few songs would not have harmed it particularly. Yes, it is also indulgent, but what the hell, Weller felt like it. He felt like experimenting, and does so on the album to great effect. 

There are some typical-(ish) pieces of Weller mid tempo laid-back, melodic rock numbers, such as the two catchy numbers of All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You) and Have You Made Up Your Mind. Also coming in to the tuneful, relaxing rock category are Cold Moments, Black River, and the folksily upbeat Push It Along. All of these have irresistible hooks making them instantly singalong and they are light in lyrical atmosphere, as opposed to intense and introspective. 

There are some harder, grungy, industrial moments as well, such as the frantic, almost punky 22 Dreams and the even more breakneck, raucous once again punky thrash of Echoes Round The Sun. Invisible is a plaintive, piano-backed ballad the slows the pace down early on, although Weller's enunciation of "invisi-bowwl" is a little grating. 

Empty Ring is a dreamy, slow burning slightly dance-influenced chilled-out groove of a song that suffers a little from a muffled sound. Why Walk When You Can Run is a gentle acoustic strummed number while One Bright Star surprises the listener yet again as it dabbles in piano-driven, staccato Argentinian Tango rhythms. 

There are acoustically-driven, Nick Drake-esque acoustic, dreamy bucolic numbers like Light Nights and the Celtic-influenced Where'er You Go. God and 111 find Weller going just a little bit Revolution 9, before the lively, real ale folky singalong of Sea Spray changes the ambience yet again. You can't stay still, in one mood, while listening to this album, it tosses your feelings around, as if on Weller's sea spray. There are also, reflective, beautiful moments in Lullaby Für Kinder and Song For Alice. 

What is for certain is that a lot of the Wild Wood-Stanley Road early seventies Traffic-influenced guitar-driven rock is decidedly absent. From this album onwards, Weller became a David Bowie-style changeling, dabbling in various themes, styles and approaches from album to album, always trying to push his own boundaries. 

Because of the diverse, sprawling nature of this collection of songs, it does not make for a particularly easy listen, despite the relaxing nature of some of the material. This brave album is always a challenge. Maybe that is what Weller wanted. In fact, I am sure it is.

Secondary, 4 of 5

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