Paul Weller ['Modern Classics' The Greatest Hits] 

A traverse through the early back catalogue of Paul Weller, this disc is now getting a bit old [a 1998 compilation consisting of his first four solo albums], since then he's brought out another seven studio albums, so i guess the title 'The Greatest Hits' is now questionable, it must be time for another 'best of', probably a double disc compilation, although there's a certain something about early solo Weller, some of his middle period albums missed the mark, even though it's considered he's back to his best, i really need to discover his present self, when Sonik Kicks gets cheap enough i'll get it, so here's 55 minutes of 16 tracks of Weller, there's a consistency there, it really sounds like this could all be one album, and yet a great variety of music, i'm really warming to him, and this disc has appeared in my Blog twice before [5th April 2012 & 16th March 2011].

Paul Weller is an English Singer / Songwriter, he's now 54, a free man to pursue almost any musical creative spark or experimentation he wishes, this compilation came out in 1998, and consists of his first four solo albums 1992-1997, the front / back cover photography is by Lawrence Watson, and the booklet has some wonderful photographs within its pages [also by Watson], showing Weller in the studio and in a more relaxed mood, excellent photography throughout, the front cover shows Weller almost cut in half, as if it's the top half of a snap, enlarged that makes the pic somewhat low quality, but i love the blue of it, and the squashed lettering at the top is excellent, the wheatfield theme is a good one, and even though he's always worked with a Band, really he's a loner as a composer, and certainly a 'solo' Artist.

On this listen, i enjoyed how consistent Weller is, there really isn't a dud on the album, but most of all i liked tracks 2-3, 9 & 14-15, and here's a synopsis of each,
2 Peacock Suit - A hard chugging song, with Weller in some sort of angry mode.  
3 Sunflower - A love song, and yet sung hard, with a nice bubbly beat to it, best lyric 'You cloud my days, messing up my nights'.
9 The Changingman - A clangy rhythm, again there's this sense of anger, and about the song, Weller readily admits to using the vibe of ELO's 10538 Overture throughout, you get that feel of cellos that they have, right at the end there's a bang of finality, but then right away it starts up again to immediately fade [3:18+], a nice and effective idea, best lyric 'Too in touch with myself, i light the fuse'.
14 Mermaids - More of a lyrical love song, reminiscent of the Style Council, but also Beatlesque in its jangly sort of way, the singing is really heartfelt, best lyric 'I often hide in her magic hair'.
15 Broken Stones - Probably my favourite on this listen, the beat at the beginning is really nice, a nice combination of drum and cymbal, Weller sings as a Soul Singer, towards the end some instruments stop, so the drumming beat comes to the fore [2:41+], i like minimalistic feel.

The Jam [The Sound Of The Jam] 

I got interested in The Jam when i heard The Eton Rifles on the radio, however even though i bought a few vinyl 45 singles, i never delved into an album until much later, and i soon found out that the best way of a disc representing The Jam was in a compilation album, i've always felt that The Jam have a handful of great songs, but then quickly fall away to 'filler', but in listening to this disc today, i find some of the lesser liked tracks to be quite good, probably 'Ghosts' is a good representation of this, a nice disc full of social observation and working class feelings.

The Jam were formed in Woking in the late Seventies, and split up at the end of 1982, they were at the top of their game for five years cruising the singles and album charts, Paul Weller was the brainbox behind the band, being lead singer / songwriter, this compilation brings together a one disc collection of their best material, released in 2002, the front cover [photo by Pennie Smith] is fantastic, a punchy black and white shot, with lettering in shocking pink across the front in a band, the strong colour is at odds with the colourless photo, but these opposites really make a visual statement, The Jam dressed up in their Mod attire, a striped blazer, snake scarf, tartan trousers,  a cravat?, they were smart, not like their Punk cousins who wore ripped jeans an T shirts, Bruce Foxton at the front frames the piece nicely, with his light Jacket and elbows out, but Weller has a scowl on his face, a great visual statement.

The tracks that i liked the best were 3, 5 & 11, and here's a little synopsis of each,
3 The Modern World - Nice and Punky, with an underlying anger in the voice, especially on the words 'nothing / noffing' [0:16 & 0:54], i like the harmony when Bruce Foxton sings [0:33-0:42], the track really explodes into anger when Weller shouts 'this is the modern world!' [1:14-1:30], and the hard guitar instrumental afterwards, and further along the line 'i don't give two fucks about your review' [1:48-1:51], the outro is excellent, 'this is, this is, this is' [2:05-2:10].
5 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - Probably my favourite Jam song, another song of violence, starts of with a recording of an approaching tube train, and a little girls voice 'the train's coming', or something like that, i like the way that the Drummer Rick Buckler shimmers the cymbals [0:20-0:42], something i haven't noticed before, but really great, Weller is superb in his visualizations, 'Hey boy, have you got ant money?' [1:45-1:49] the gruffness on 'money' is telling, 'they smelt of pubs and wormwood scrubs, and too many right wing meetings' [2:22-2:29], nice rhyming, it's in the third verse where it's sheer genius 'the last thing that i saw, as i lay there on the floor, was Jesus saves by an Atheist nutter, and a British Rail poster read, have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today' [3:05-3:16] now that's poetry in the highest sense of the art, the reference to the 'Atheist nutter' is a gem, one thing i've never noticed before is the words 'i... thought about my wife, cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me' [3:16-3:22], sounds like they're going round his house to do his woman violence too, an unsettling but poignant song, really meaningful.
11 The Eton Rifles - 

Paul Weller ['Modern Classics' The Greatest Hits]

Paul Weller's Greatest Hits are certainly a subjective choice, i guess this compilation isn't called 'The Best Of Paul Weller', or it would be even more subjective, who chose this compilation?, i guess it was Paul Weller himself, or rather if they're greatest hits, it's what got into the charts and was successful, but who chose what to throw into the charts?, and of course it's Paul Weller again, i haven't heard every single Weller album, but i was touched by certain songs that aren't included here, plus there's a tendency to send the commercial stuff into the charts, and yet it's a great snapshot of the oeuvre of Weller, i played this just over a year ago [16th March 2011].

Paul Weller is English, born in 1958, he's now 53, this disc was compiled in 1998 [wow! do we need a new Greatest Hits package], i like the visuals that come with this disc, even though the front cover photo is not that great, there's a certain hazy fuzziness to it, a dreamy walking through the wheat fields, the front booklet and back inlay work as one big letterbox picture when the CD case is opened out, and the booklet is full of good pictures, the lettering on the front is great, and the track listing on the back is inspired too.

I really liked listening to everything here, i appreciated a lot of his music that i thought was merely very good before, only tracks 2 & 10 i thought were the weak links, and they were good, it was track 15 'Broken Stones' that i thought was the gem of the bunch,

Here's Paul Weller singing 'Broken Stones' on YouTube.

Various Artists [The Dog's Bollocks!] 

Well the title says it all!, a clever and humorous [though risque] take on the best Indie Rock music of 1996, and of course then there's the photos for this issue, showing Fido in all his gory... i mean glory!, a very clever use of a dog, i really like these visuals, and it's so good to have the track listing in black and white, it makes searching for a track so much easier.

Well there's 40 slabs of very different music here, even though they're gathered under the basic genre of Indie / BritPop, it's mainly comes from Bands, but there are individual soloists too, and a good selection of female vocalists too.

The tracks i really liked were 1, 3, 5-6, 8-9, 13, 15-16, 18, 20 & 32, lots of rebellion and irreverence here, and it's good to listen to some tracks that i missed out on when they first came out, i'll have to do some more digging, the track that impressed me the most was track 6 from the first disc 'Stupid Girl' by Garbage, originally i heard this song on a freebie disc from some magazine, and i just had to get their album, it's about a girl that fakes things to get what she wants, here's the opening lines,

You pretend you're high

Pretend you're bored

Pretend you're anything

Just to be adored

And what you need

Is what you get

It starts off with a nice atmospheric drumbeat, in the chorus i like the digital blips [0:48 & 1:52], Lead Singer Shirley Manson can sound like Debbie Harry at times, in the second verse there's some nice background echoes to her singing [1:36], towards the end she gets more frantic [2:56], the digital blips are fantastic, right at the very end the song comes to an abrupt stop on a final 'stupid girl!' [4:15], and a quickly dying cymbal, a great way to end a song, this is a nice compilation, worth getting to know.

Here's Garbage singing 'Stupid Girl' on YouTube.

Various Artists [True Brit] 

BritPop was a genre that was in full swing in the late Eighties to the early Nineties, which were showcased by such Bands as Oasis and Blur [which surprisingly are both missing from this compilation], but there's lots of other bands to enjoy, and on this compilation it's mainly made up of bands, and only Edwyn Collins and Paul Weller [twice!] break that cycle, it's also good to have quite a number of female fronted bands too [but where is Garbage?], so we get 40 of almost the best songs from each featured band, it really is a great compilation.

It's a great package visually too, showing on the front cover a drum kit, nice and sharp, well laid out, of course it has this red, white, and blue 'British' theme to it, but the Mini car motif gets in the way.

For me the best tracks are 4, 6, 12-13, 21-22, 25-26, 29 & 37-39, and easily i found the very best track to be track 25 [track 5 on disc 2], Friday I'm In Love by The Cure, it's one of the reasons for owning this set, i just love this song, and it seems hard to get on a compilation, it's written by lead singer Robert Smith, yes him of the spiky hair and the lipstick, the song came out in 1992, and it's a very upbeat song, with gorgeous jangly guitars, and a superb onrushing rhythm, the lyrics take us through the days of the week, and settle on the penultimate Friday, with hand claps in the chorus, a short guitar solo early on [1:22-1:37], there's a different central section [2:01-2:29], and some interesting lyrics,

It's such a gorgeous sight

To see you eat in the middle of the night

the outro is great, and the song comes to an abrupt stop in the middle of nowhere!, it's so upbeat and fun!.

Here's The Cure singing Friday I'm In Love on YouTube.