Paul Weller – Saturns Patterns (ALBUM REVIEW)

[rating=8.00]

paulwelleralbumListening to the sonic experimentation of Paul Weller’s album Saturns Patterns, it only makes sense this is the man who fronted two bands, The Jam and The Style Council, so very stylistically diverse from each other. Yet Weller declaims his iconoclastic personality here, often as not as cacophonous as it is on “White Sky.” so that the effusive gratitude he affords his collaborators (in particular co-producer Jan Stan Kybert), along with the detailed musician and production credits, only further reaffirms how he sets the  tone for this project.

This title song sounds oh so British, but only fleetingly so in the ‘doo doo doo’ chorus aided by Steve Pilgrim, and hearing the country blues morph into vintage 80’s electronique during “In My Car” is the sound of a musician who’s become a virtual melting pot of influences beyond the British Isles. Meanwhile, the mix of Steve Brookes and Steve Craddock guitars plus the violin of Raven Bush on “These City Streets” is absolutely luxurious.

It might be worth hearing this album on headphones to catch the nuances of the mix as they form the whole of each track: effects are added with a distinct purpose. “Going My Way” has a classic piano-based Motown feel accentuated by falsetto harmonies echoed almost as heavily as the lead vocal.  With its intentional primal drumming from Tom Van Heel, offset by hand-claps before Josh McClorey’s slide guitar swoops in, the sum effect of “Long Time”  is vintage neo-punk–and if  that sounds contradictory, much of the melding of style here seems that way on first listen.

To follow a number with the R&B roots of “Pick It Up” isn’t only ambitious but brave on Weller’s part, like this record as a whole, a demonstration of the skills he’s honed over the years in tailoring his recordings to his original material. But the quasi-classical guitar precedes a synth wash that only enhances the emotional heat at the heart of this cut: what Paul Weller wants to say is inside his arrangements as much of or more so than his printed lyrics, which is ultimately what makes Saturns Patterns such compelling listening.

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