London Evening Standard
PAUL WELLER
Sonik Kicks
(Island)
****
On his 11th solo effort, 53-year-old Weller sounds fresher and is more sonically adventurous than he has been in years. Perhaps it’s because Sonik Kicks is his first teetotal album, or maybe it’s the influence of Hannah Andrews, the current Mrs Weller, who duets on the sprawling Study in Blue, but from the moment Green kicks in with an walloping, late-period Jam-style-clatter, he’s all over the place — in an inspired, engrossing way.
And much as he acknowledges his own past, he’s rekindled his curiosity in other music, whether peering into Krautrock on Kling I Klang; paying homage to Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett alongside Noel Gallagher on When Your Garden’s Overgrown or paying genuinely emotional tribute to his father alongside a couple of his own offspring on Be Happy Children.
And as if to show he can walk as well as run, he slows down the frenetic pace and strips everything back on the lovely, string-laden By the Waters.
All things considered, it’s hard to think of a bolder, braver or better Weller album.
JOHN AIZLEWOOD
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/m…k-7574868.html
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