Q246
Modern Art
Sixty-seven ways to craft a single
PAUL WELLER
HIT PARADE
4 stars out of 5
When picking up his lifetime Achievements gong at this year’s Brits Awards, Paul Weller had just four songs and fifteen minutes to remind us why he’d earned it. With the luxury of four hours playing time this box set makes for a more conclusive testimonial of his impact on British music. Collating Weller’s entire singles output from 1977 up until the present (all 67 of them), hit Parade is an account of his epic journey from punk firebrand to militant 80’s chart provocateur and eventual 90’s Britpop patriarch.
The angriest of angry young men with the jam, Weller turned his urban rage into idealistic anthems for the first generation of Thatcher’s children. The trio’s five year run from ‘77’s in The City to ‘82’s Beat Surrender would cement their reputation as best singles band to emerge from punk and the greatest guitar pop group of their day.
By contrast, with The Style Council Weller swapped idealism for irony, or dripping sarcasm in the case of 1985’s vaudevillian gem Come To Milton Keynes. Yet by the end of the decade such cryptic responses to political satire, normally to the tune of tepid R&B, made his visits to the top ten so infrequent that his label dropped him.
Consequently, his Lazarus like 90’s renaissance exact sweet revenge on those who questioned Weller’s ability to bounce back as a solo artist. Hit parade’s second half witnesses his coronation as the nation’s modfather courtesy of Glastonbury size guitar riffs (Sunflower, Peacock Suit) and persistently great songwriter, up to and including last year’s rip roaring Blink & You’ll Miss It.
A separate single disc version condenses the more obvious highlights, but the splendour of his carrer really deserves revisiting in all it’s underbriged glory. It’s a legacy to treasure.
DOWNLOAD: The Changingman
FURTHER LISTENING
PLAYLIST: WELLER ALBUM TRACKS
1. ART SCHOOL The Jam
AVAILABLE ON IN THE CITY, 1977
2. ENGLISH ROSE The Jam
AVAILABLE ON ALL MOD CONS, 1978
3. MONDAY The Jam
AVAILABLE ON SOUND AFFECTS, 1980
4. DOWN IN THE SEINE The Style Council
AVAILABLE ON OUR FAVOURITE SHOP, 1985
5. THERE IS NO DRINKING AFTER YOU’RE DEAD Paul Weller
AVAILABLE ON HELIOCENTRIC, 2000
Review By Simon Goddard.
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