release date: Sep. 14, 2004
format: cd (SACD)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]
producer: Jan Kybert & Paul Weller
label: V2 - nationality: England, UK
7th studio album by Paul Weller following two years after Illumination is a collection of cover songs of various styles from standards, rhythm & blues, soul, classic pop, folk rock, and pop / rock, and most songs are originally from the 1960s.
The album is not all bad, and the material of songs of course represent Weller's influences but I really don't find it a pleasant listen altogether. Some songs are a wee bit hard to listen to in Weller's arrangements and with his pop / rock vocal, e.g. the traditional "Black Is the Colour", Bacharach and Hardin's "Close to You" - legendary in The Carpenters version - Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" - strongly covered by many others, and then he has made room for a song by britpop composer Noel Gallagher of Oasis, which simply seems out of place, when putting him alongside Bob Dylan, Billie Calvin, Neil Young, Gil Scott-Heron, Burt Bacharach and Nile Rodgers but it also points to how diverse and redundant this collection of songs basically seem.
[ allmusic.com, The Music Box 3 / 5 stars ]
