Fat Pop (Volume 1)release date: May 14, 2021
format: digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,76]
producer: Paul Weller & Jan 'Stan' Kybert
label: Polydor Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Cosmic Fringes" - 2. "True (feat. Lia Metcalfe)" - 3. "Fat Pop" - 4. "Shades of Blue" - 5. "Glad Times" (live on Later) - 6. "Cobweb / Connections" - 8. "That Pleasure" - 11. "In Better Times" (4 / 5) (live in session)
16th studio album by Paul Weller released only 10 months after his fine On Sunset (Jul. 2020), and again it's a release featuring producer and multi-instrumentalist Jan Kybert, who first worked with Weller on the album Studio 150 in 2004, and who has since then taken part on most of Weller's studio albums, either as musician or as co-producer.
The album nicely follows the musical expression you'll find on the 2020 album without being mere repetition. It rather seems as if Weller in his older days has come up with his very own expression, which lends from all sorts of genres and styles, but which nevertheless sounds unmistakably as Paul Weller only and no one else. It's British soul with strong roots in the golden beat music of the 60s, and then it's spiced up with mod, traditional American r&b, and equal parts of modern styles making him sound as a one-man Gorillaz band, and yet at other times you may sense it sounds oddly familiar, as on the both beautiful and heartfelt "In Better Times", where the mood alone brings back vivid memories of fine ballads from The Jam, The Style Council, or from Weller's early solo releases, and yet the track appears completely new and personal.
Once again, Weller ranks among the finest English songwriters without sounding old-school or out of sync with present-day.
Recommended.
