Album Review: Paul Weller Sonik Kicks

10 April 2012 | 12:12 pm | Ross Clelland

It’s all done with apparent sincerity, but many will end up not quite sure where the artist’s true passions lay – other than in the mirror.

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Enthusiasts and observers of Paul Weller, genuine elder statesman, can sometimes end up confused by what he's trying to achieve on each new album he releases.

Here again there's almost too much going on, as if he's trying to prove how across musical genres – past, present and future – he is. Thing is, he often gets it right. But then can look like he's trying a little too hard – even down to the artwork; 'playful' new wave misspelling, saturated neon and perfectly tailored Mod suit making him look just a little too much like a mannequin in Madame Tussaud's History of Rock section.

The music goes in a dozen tangents. More correctly, make that 14 directions – that being the number of tracks. There's comfortable Brit-pop like the glam-Kinks via early-era Blur of That Dangerous Age, and the melodic swing of The Attic, where the once-unlikely credits of Noel Gallagher and Graham Coxon actually appear together.

Elsewhere, it gets odder. A bit psychedelic here, some kraut-rock mechanical noise there. By The Waters some attempting-to-be-deep folk, possibly from listening to too many old Nick Drake records. But it all seems to centre around the somewhat grandly titled Study In Blue. From the café jazz, with just a hint of The Style Council, in its breezy duet – with his latest younger model wife – which then curves off into echoey dub stylings for perhaps a little too long.

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It's all done with apparent sincerity, but many will end up not quite sure where the artist's true passions lay – other than in the mirror.