I was slightly concerned a few tracks into the new Paul Weller opus '22 Dreams'... The opener 'Light Nights' is cool, the backing track all Nick Drake with some Linda Thompson type backing vocals but the voice unmistakably Weller. However, at the back of my mind I was thinking 'Wild Wood' revisited... My mood wasn't improved by second track '22 Dreams' which sounded like 'Peacock Suit' - revisited (for the nth time!) and 'All I Wanno Do (is be with you)' which although pleasant enough, is a poor imitation of 'Out of the sinking'... 'Have you made up your mind' is great though - a familiar sounding riff leaving you searching your memory banks only to realize it's Weller's own 'My ever changing moods'...
The hype surrounding this collection is that it's Weller's 'White Album' but for me it's his 'What's going on'. 'Empty Ring' is a good indication of this, with it's subtle production and light strings... 'Invisible' perhaps should have remained so - any Weller piano ballad struggling to live up to 'You do something to me'. Next is 'Song for Alice' - an airy free-jazz instrumental followed by another Marvin Gaye flavoured track 'Cold Moments' and the pastoral interlude 'The Dark Pages of September'...
Next is one of the highlights of the album 'Black River' - the Weller/Graham Coxon collaboration that was (criminally) originally hidden away on a B-side of Coxons... The song starts off like Ray Davies meets The Style Council and suddenly morphs into the sort of cockney knees-up usually tucked away on the end of a Blur LP! 'Why walk when you can run' is 'English Rose' but revisited by an older, more sceptical Weller.
Part 2 to follow...
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