Artist: Weller, Paul
Label: V2
Release: 2006
Paul Weller, known as a member and co-founder of two hugely successful English bands, The Jam and The Style Council, and of course for the albums of his solo career, came to the realization that it would be smart to release a new live album, the third of his career. He titled it “Catch-Flame!” and picked home turf to record it: the Alexandra Palace hall in London. It was the last night of Weller’s sold-out UK tour, on December 5, 2005 to be exact.
Weller is a musician armed to the teeth with experience. „Catch-Flame!” is a cross-section of his entire musical career, offering Weller’s personal vision of rock music, built on a foundation of traditional British rock with soul, bluebeat and touches of R & B thrown in, say of early The Who or The Faces, plus you can pick out elements of ska and modern jazz. Important as a reviver of the „mods” (the London movement, the word “mod” being short for „modernism”, which London “teenagers” started developing as a lifestyle at the end of the fifties). Weller’s live band sounds tight and in sync, without a single fluff. This is a proper “live” album, radiating the finely tuned feel of the whole group, who back Weller up like a solid frame and give him support, while at the same time showing serious flexibility, so that Weller’s unique musical figure always sits dead center and shines there at full blast. The guys manage to squeeze even more out of the live versions than the studio versions of Paul Weller’s material offer. They often spice them up with extra solos and short jams, which only proves how tightly the band is welded together around Paul. In The Crowd is probably the best example of that. It’s a track with an outstanding instrumental middle section, even featuring a drum solo, which you really wouldn’t expect from Paul Weller. The man is simply vaccinated against clichés. Right after it Paul slots in the easygoing Come On / Let’s Go (As Is Now, 2005), which lifts the weight of its predecessor, while the magic is caught in the dreamy, jazzy-bluesy, seductive Foot Of The Mountain. The colorful running order of those songs is just one example of the dynamically rolling mood across both live discs.
One of the peaks of this record is caught, besides the delicately fragile acoustic Wishing On A Star (orig. Rose Royce), where the crowd steps up with some serious sing-along, right in the closing tracks (the sweetest is saved for last), which once again firmly get the masses on their feet. These are the classics from Weller’s time in The Jam and The Style Council: That’s Entertainment and the closing A Town Called Malice (both The Jam), plus Shout To The Top and Long Lost Summer (both The Style Council).
The track selection on “Catch-Flame” initially kicked up quite a bit of dust among Weller’s fans, since it doesn’t include every song Paul played on the UK tour. So We All Need Love, Here’s The Good News, Early Morning Rain, Mermaids and Amongst Butterflies were cut after the fact. The album leans more heavily on songs (five in total) from “As Is Now” (2005), the record Paul promoted on the tour this live recording comes from.
The man’s singing is full, clean and clear. He rules with an exceptional feel for subtlety, and he’s especially convincing when he works pinches of soul into the calmer songs (You Do Something To Me, Wild Wood, The Pebble & The Boy, Wishing On A Star), which brings the emotions to life and pours them into reality. Weller is simply the perfect Englishman. And every melancholic Englishman is a perfect Englishman. This refined vocal approach is superbly amplified by a guitar that’s at times downright nervy and gritty, with the pure-blooded semi-acoustic character and noble metallic ring you’d find on the best live albums by seventies solo artists. It’s an important contrast of rock and soul, if I may be loose with terminology yet bizarrely vivid in describing that contrast.
The strengths of this double CD lie above all in the performance of the material itself, though the outstanding response of the crowd chips in too. Weller barely addresses the audience during the show, and this time around you don’t miss it one bit. The live feel is here, created more than effectively. The performance is enough, the atmosphere is born.
This album is ideal for anyone interested in Paul Weller’s career who doesn’t want to bother with “best of” compilations. It’s a handy retrospective cross-section of Weller’s career, and fans of his music won’t hesitate for a second over buying it. Weller’s songs hit harder live, and with the sensual depth they carry across, they come off even more intense and effective than the studio material. “Catch-Flame!” is a captured moment that most sincerely confirms this artist’s greatness. A selection that simply can’t and won’t disappoint. And with this album Weller proves he hasn’t aged by a single gray hair and still kicks like in his wildest days in The Jam. An album loaded with emotional intensity, the kind you won’t easily find these days.
Line-up
Paul Weller – vocals, guitar
Steve Cradock – guitar
Seamus Beaghan – keyboards
Damon Minchella – bass guitar
Steve White – drums, percussion
Production
Paul Weller
Track list
CD 1. (45.14):
1. The Weaver
2. Out of the Sinking
3. Blink & You’ll Miss It
4. Paper Smile
5. Peacock Suit
6. From the Floorboards Up
7. The Changing Man
8. Savages
9. Going Places
10. Up in Suzi’s Room
11. Porcelain God/ I Walk on Guilded Splinters
CD 2. (61.24):
1. In the Crowd
2. Come On/ Let’s Go
3. Foot of the Mountain
4. You Do Something To Me
5. Wishing on a Star
6. Wild Wood
7. The Pebble & The Boy
8. Thats Entertainment
9. Broken Stones
10. Long Hot Summer
11. Shout to The Top
12. A Town Called Malice
Running time: 106.38
