Paul Weller
Hit Parade
Yep Roc Records
By David Barker
Compiling an adequate hits collection of any artist whose career spans three decades is a daunting task for most anyone, and when Paul Weller is the artist at hand, the compiler is faced with having to represent three very different bands—The Jam, The Style Council, and solo work—on one disc. Yep Roc took two routes to the solution, releasing Hit Parade as a single disc compendium, and releasing a much more comprehensive box set under the same title.
The shorter version, the one at hand, does a laudable job of appraising Weller’s three eras and providing an overview of each. The younger Weller formed The Jam in 1975, and from ’77 through the early ‘80s, the trio all but dominated British rock ‘n’ roll. Fed up with the simplistic sound that his band was offering, and wanting to forge a new identity going a new direction, Weller teamed up with keyboardist Mick Talbot (also of Dexy’s Midnight Runners) to create a more complex, dynamic group. The Style Council’s soul-pop (which Weller explored in The Jam towards the end of its existence) suited the burgeoning new wave scene of the era, both in appearance and sound. Big organs, brass and Weller’s crooning made The Style Council sound worlds apart from his previous group, and that band’s best finds its way onto Hit Parade. Finally, the demise of The Style Council came, though maybe a few years too late. The early ‘90s obviously weren’t welcoming the band with open ears, and in ’92 Weller released his debut solo record, the first of a career which has yet to end.
It’s difficult to say what parameters Yep Roc used in gauging what tracks from The Jam were to be included—early hits “In the City” and “The Modern World” aren’t found here. Then again, us Americans have been treated to a completely different view of the group, especially those of us who weren’t alive or were toddlers during the band’s heydays. Those tracks that do make appearances here, most notably the “Taxman”-esque “Start,” “Town Called Malice” and “Down in the Tube Station at Midnight” are culled from The Jam’s less punk, more British rock/soul/pop period.
Most of The Style Council tracks have incredibly cheesy music video counterparts, which one can easily find at Youtube, and while the tracks often feel dated and relegated to the decade in which they were written, they’re mostly works to be judged in a time context—they’re certainly not timeless classics. The porno-funk of “Long Hot Summer” and the summery melodies of “My Ever Changing Moods” exemplify the two extremes of the group’s history, while “Shout to the Top” and “Speak Like a Child” are solid, memorable hits.
Weller’s wealth of solo material comprises nearly half of the disc, but as that part of his career was typically more along the lines of singer/songwriter, these songs lack the stigmas of his other incarnations—The Jam’s politics and The Style Council’s style. That’s of course not to say that these aren’t good songs, and the majority of the 11 tracks are pulled from Wild Wood (’93) and Stanley Road (’95). “Sunflower” and “The Changingman” are classic, mature Weller, while “From the Floorboards Up” (from 2005’s As Is Now) shows that even in the 21st century, the old socialist is still worthwhile.
While Hit Parade certainly won’t replace having the actual albums from where these songs came, it provides a strong overview of an artist whose past thirty years have yielded some of the strongest and diverse songwriting of the era.
|
