Album review: Paul Weller; Sonik Kicks

Paul Weller’s current single That Dangerous Age pokes fun at the idea of mid-life crisis with a mix of wistfulness and irreverence one would more likely expect to hear from Damon Albarn. With its unabashed pop melody and mischievous call-and-response shoop-shoop backing vocals, it is the work of a man secure in his world – a world that in the past couple of years has involved marriage to a woman less than half his age. Paul Weller in sense of humour shocker?

If that is the case, he can well afford to have a laugh at his own expense, given his eminent status as the Modfather. The respect he accords to his musical heroes has also been his to bask in for quite some time but, rather than rest on his back catalogue or accede to those offers to reform The Jam, he continues to look forward and produce new work. When it was intimated that he would play a “classic album” at his current Roundhouse mini-residency, it was this album, his 11th solo outing, which he had in mind.

Weller has described Sonik Kicks, which comes encased in a suitably colour-saturated, strobe-strewn sleeve, as “modern psychedelic music” and a “colourful trip”. By his account, it was an easy trip to take. The angry young man has become a contented old geezer, so relaxed about his latest offering that it has been streaming everywhere with more than a week to go before its release.

The musical news is that Paul Weller, inveterate classicist, has finally, aged 53, discovered Krautrock. Maybe his trailblazing buddy Noel Gallagher turned him on to the joys of Neu! More likely, his esoterica-loving producer Simon Dine has influenced the direction of his recent albums.

Rather than present pre-crafted songs to his band, he chose to play about in the studio with a patchwork of sonic ideas. You can hear the fruits of this approach on opening track Green, which might reasonably be called experimental by Weller’s standards, with its motorik rhythm, staccato spoken mutterings, vintage synth throb and needling guitars.

It goes nowhere that Primal Scream, or even the clod-hopping Kasabian, haven’t gone before, but it’s a pleasant surprise all the same, coming from the man who was saddled with the creation of Dadrock in the Nineties.

Sonik Kicks completes a neat trilogy with Wake Up The Nation and its consciously eclectic, sprawling predecessor 22 Dreams. This album is considerably shorter but still pulsing with interesting sounds. Weller goes too far in calling it “groundbreaking”, though; instead, Sonik Kicks comes across like a remix of his back catalogue, which should please both traditionalists and those who like their old age punks with a creative spring in their step.

Speaking of which, The Attic is agreeably light on its feet, spiked with pizzicato strings and backwards guitars and propelled forward by a carefree momentum. Elsewhere, Weller sounds antsier, hungrier on the urgent garage psych number Kling I Klang, which is named (accidentally, according to him) after Kraftwerk’s studio but comes up closer to the hectic, buzzing pace of Neu!

Much of this supposed modern psychedelia sounds pretty much like the Sixties fruit salad light show variety. Around The Lake adds a dash of gothic foreboding and haunted house Hammond organ to this recipe, the acid rhythm’n’blues of Drifters whips itself into a heady frenzy and the instrumental Sleep of the Serene, with its electronic bloops and distorted strings, could easily soundtrack the groovy party scene in some throwback movie.

There’s even a tribute to Syd Barrett, When Your Garden’s Overgrown, which imagines an alternative path for the troubled Pink Floyd frontman. However, this is one of the less inspired numbers, along with Paperchase, which simply apes the Tomorrow Never Knows template with more backwards looping and drunken strings.

The quieter moments are among the most effective. Even though Weller doesn’t entirely convince in lullaby mode, By The Waters is a nice reprise of the languid pastoral folk of Wild Wood, with a twinkling string arrangement courtesy of Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas.

Weller’s wife Hannah duets on sultry soul jazz joint Study In Blue, which revisits the Style Council corner of his catalogue then teases out the languid, elastic bassline into a dubby coda. He keeps it in the family with Be Happy Children, a sweet southern soul-influenced ode to his father John, who was his manager until his death in 2009. It is also mindful of his own parenting responsibilities and features two of his offspring, eldest daughter Leah and young son Stevie Mac, on guest vocals.

Not only does he pull it off without descending into schmaltz, it’s also a reminder that Weller on form such as this is a fine soul singer.

Rating: ***