Paul Weller - 22 Dreams
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Free Music Notes for 22 Dreams
Free Music Review: Somehow singing "I had 21 Dreams last night" doesn't have the same punch
Hit: 5 Stars
Okay, so there are 21 songs, not the expected 22. Don't let it bother you. This is the first disc in a long time that feels like a fully realized album to me. It isn't a concept album--I don't find any common thematic thread musically or lyrically, yet somehow each song rolls perfectly into the next. In particular, the flow from the title track to All I Wanna Do (Is Be with You), to Have You Made up Your Mind? to Empty Ring to Invisible to Song for Alice feels like one unbroken continuum, despite their varied musical styles. Yes, there are a couple of tracks that might have been better left off the disc (for instance God or 111), but somehow they don't bother me as they would on another artist's record. Perhaps it's because I feel like Weller really believes in those tracks. In another musician's hands, they would strike me as pretentious. On 22 Dreams, they just feel like a couple of good ideas that didn't work out. As a long-time Paul Weller fan, I've long since given up on hoping for a return to The Jam's sound. You hear it here and there, but what is great about Weller is that he continues to move forward as a musician long after many other guys would be living off the royalties from their greatest hits boxed sets.Free Music Review: A new level.
Hit: 5 Stars
Paul Wellers career has been like a roller-coastertrip. Starting high with six raising years with The Jam, the final album ("The Gift") at top. Five declining years with The Style Counsil with several great songs thou. And now a 20 years uneven solocareer with mostly "moody" music that seldom really hooked me. Until now. "22 Dreams" includes 21(!) songs sewed together in a suite (think B-side of "Abbey Road"). Here Paul Weller succeed to take the best from each part of his musical history and sum it up to a bountyfull tasty stew. From The Jam-years we recognize corefull riffs and melodies. From The Style Counsil-years we recognize the artfull arrangements and the soulfullness. From the solo-years we recognize the dreamy psycadelica. All in all a masterpiece. How nice and touching when "old" heroes comes back big time!Free Music Review: I Had 22 Dreams Last Night
Hit: 5 Stars
The Modfather returns with "22 Dreams" -- an album that captures Weller in variety of moods, interpreting a variety of musical influences. The title track is one of my favorite Weller numbers of all time (Jam and Style Council included). Reviewers invariably find one or two "weak" tracks -- most often, it seems, the spoken word "God" -- but each song on the album casts its own spell. Give them all a chance, resequence them if you need to. Some songs will hit you right away. Others may sneak up on you when you least expect it.
Standout tracks: "22 Dreams," "All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)", "Have You Made Up Your Mind," "Empty Ring," and "Push It Along."
Free Music Review: Innovative blend of sounds.
Hit: 4 Stars
The legendary rock star, Paul Weller makes his comeback!
If nothing else, you tend to associate Paul Weller with lean and muscular music - rock without any flab or fripperies.
So the big surprise about the epic "22 Dreams" is just how much latitude Weller gives himself to wander off down intriguing musical backwaters.
Some 30 years spent as a bedrock of great British songcraft is time enough for a man to be allowed to indulge himself a little.
Hence this Paul Weller 70-minute concept album relating a young man's journey from heartbreak to spiritual awakening, blending together an eclectic array of genres, spanning two discs, 21 tunes and much of the musical spectrum: trad folk, lounge, psychedelia and piano balladry included.
Yes, there are the mod anthems, spirited evocations of Sixties R&B, like the title track.
But there are instrumental interludes which run the gamut from eastern classical to blithe jazz, all invested with a dream-like quality.
Even so, all are unmistakably Weller.
The voice of a generation can't be disguised by shifting genre. Despite the eclectic aspirations, standouts recall the vibrant English soul that first marked the latter days of the Jam.
There are curiosities like "Light Nights", which is earnest folk with a whiff of Pentangle about it, and "Why Walk When You Can Run", a pining bit of acoustica which could almost belong on the latest Neil Diamond album.
There are liberal dose of strings, occasional whiffs of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye and, with the apparent theme of changing seasons, a sense of something epic happening, but without the dreary sense of self-importance which often comes with a concept album.
The electrifying title track and "Have You Made Up Your Mind" suggest that this album would be up there with Weller's best, were it not 21 songs long -too many of the more experimental soundscapes are surely only of interest to their creator.
Yes, Weller can't be begrudged such gratification, but "22 Dreams" would have been all the better for a trim.
Despite that, the album has the ring of a classic. He may no longer be a spokesman for anyone but himself, but Weller is still setting standards for his generation.
"22 Dreams" features various collaborations with other well-known artist: Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of Oasis, Graham Coxon of Blur, Steve Cradock of Ocean Colour Scene, Little Barrie and an ex-Stone Roses guitarist, Aziz Ibrahim.
Fresh new tracks "Echoes Round The Sun" and "Have You Made Up Your Mind" are set to be released to dominate the radio airwaves.
Free Music Review: 22 Dreams
Hit: 4 Stars
Paul's back, with more of the great tune revival we heard in Illumination.
Much of his earlier solo work left us pining for Style Council and Jam, but melody is back in this deep collection of well written songs.
Of particular interest to me was the song about God, where the singer suggests that people just lead their own lives, ignoring God, until they're in desperate need of something, and then turn to God for help. So true so often.
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