Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Weller, Paul
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2012
Running time: 43:30
Rating: 5/5
Paul Weller is an exceptional artist. Thirty years ago he was already shaking up the top of the charts so hard it lit up the sky. The godfather of the mod revival has never looked back down the musical road he’s traveled, never sat on his laurels or draped himself in them by trying to cook up a carbon copy of the album that was his big commercial hit. Nope. What defines this artist is a constant drive to set himself new artistic challenges and to pour his basic musical essence into the shape and form of countless musical reflections that only he knows how to deliver and understand, keeping his loyal listeners on their toes the whole way. In Weller’s case, of course, always in a good way.
»Sonik Kicks« is the album where Weller has gone all the way down the rabbit hole of psychedelia and total sound manipulation! He plugs in sound samples and hypnotic loops, then thickens it all up with old-school keyboards, from Hammond organs to the good old Mellotron, and he even throws in some Moog.
As ever, Weller is joined on the album by a whole series of outstanding musicians, with two guitarists standing out in particular, both taken straight from the very top of the golden age of Britpop. That’s Noel Gallagher (Oais) and Graham Coxon (Blur), and it’s not the first time they’ve worked with Weller. Remember the album »22 Dreams« (2008).
The contrasts in the soundscape that adorns »Sonik Kicks« are extraordinary. Alongside the classic stance of that old-school British »jangle« sound of electric, semi-acoustic and acoustic guitars, there’s the plain but jolting, tightly chiseled rhythm dictated by the »snare« drum (often sensibly backed by some percussion, as in the tracks Drifters and The Attic), and that’s what Weller’s highly vibrant, atmospheric, adventurous, freshly dimensioned soundscape rests on this time around. »Sonik Kicks« floats in a kind of »space« trance, soaked in the brilliant use of vintage Mellotron and Hammond sounds, as well as crafty manipulation and twisting of sound loops. This time Weller and his crew set themselves no limits at all in the studio, which is how they managed to create such a rich, full sound, one that keeps rewarding the listener, revealing fresh experiences, its own very special and unique art paradigms, with every extra spin of the disc in the CD player. »Sonik Kicks« is an album that creeps under your skin slowly. But once it catches, it’ll burn forever!
Weller once again proves the sheer power of his role as a vocal interpreter. His voice remains the conductor of this album. This time too he keeps that special contour that’s close to the stamp of Peter Gabriel’s and Gary Brooker’s (Procol Harum) vocals. That feeling comes to the surface especially in the calmer moments, when tasteful string arrangements wrap around the vocal, and above all when the piano steps into the center of the accompaniment. Such is the closing track Be Happy Children, which wins you over with its distinctly solemn moment, its contagious melodiousness, and an outstanding duet between Paul and his daughter Leah.
The album keeps Weller’s well-honed sarcastic streak, which comes to the surface in a big way for the first time in the album’s first hit single That Dangerous Age, which carries the most pop elements, and the triumph there is of course the interplay between Weller’s vocal and the female backing vocals in the catchy chorus. Kling | Klang, When Your Garden’s Overgrown and Paperchaser are likewise full of authentically placed, standout black British humoresques.
The biggest artistic challenge Weller set himself this time is the dub-inspired Study In Blue, where Weller’s wife Hannah joins in on a vocal duet. The longest track on the album takes on the most tinkering with the non-specifics of Weller’s music, yet they’re used in the arrangement so that, in an ideal dose of full harmony, Weller’s eclecticism and the cues of that musical genre (dub) join hands. The sound loops also deepen the touch of musical directions typical of trip-hop (the sampled harmonica effect). This is a track that is, in itself, the peak of Weller’s experimentalism on the new album.
Then there are the darker-leaning Dragonfly and Around the Lake, loaded onto a sped-up rhythmic pattern, and their compactness is once again successfully condensed by a superb backdrop of a “space” landscape of countless sound effects that could easily be used in any sci-fi film.
Judging by what »Sonik Kicks« delivers, Paul Weller as a performer has reached a status of expressive, stylistic originality, filling the void left when the first rock chameleon of this planet, David Bowie, retired. And with the filigree feel with which he creates new musical substance, those remarkably layered curtains of a psychedelic, kaleidoscopic landscape, the parallels with the sophistication of yet another British experimental, mood-driven wizard aren’t far off anymore. That’s Damon Albarn. In short, to put it simply: with his 11th studio album of »sonic kicks«, Paul Weller has headed into new, uncharted territory of musical vocabulary and squeezed out of it pretty much everything that can be squeezed out in such a situation. He kept his highly recognizable artistic character and added a new expressive dimension to it. The sonically upgraded art charisma of the new record proves that for Weller there’s no stopping. The man keeps evolving and maturing artistically. The album »Sonik Kicks« is among the finest releases in the world of rock n’ roll this year. It keeps all the eclecticism and high accessibility, while Weller, on the new record, once again effectively fuses his recognizable musical universe with still-untested musical horizons, delivering to the market a new album of highly provocative character and filigree-detailed stance.
Lineup
Paul Weller – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, percussion, drums, backing vocals, piano, Mellotron, Hammond, Farfisa, Moog
Steve Cradock – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, backing vocals
Andy Crofts – electric guitar, backing vocals, xylophone, celeste, vibes, bass guitar, string arrangement for tracks no. 2 and 12
Noel Gallagher – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar
Graham Coxon – electric guitar
Simon Dine – electric guitar
Aziz Ibrahim – acoustic guitar
Stan Kybert – programming
Simon Dine – loops, FX, electric strings
Andy Lewis – bass guitar, celeste, vibes, xylophone
Marco Nelson – bass guitar
Roger Nowell – bass guitar
Charles Rees – percussion, drums
David Nack – drums
Steve Pilgrim – drums, backing vocals
Ben Gordelier – drums
Leah Weller – backing vocals
Mac Weller – backing vocals
Hannah Weller – backing vocals
Sean O’Hagan – string arrangement for tracks no. 4 and 5
Production
Paul Weller & Simon Dine
Tracklist
1. Green
2. The Attic
3. Kling | Klang
4. Sleep of the Serene
5. By the Waters
6. That Dangerous Age
7. Study in Blue
8. Dragonfly
9. When Your Garden’s Overgrown
10. Around the Lake
11. Twilight
12. Drifters
13. Paperchase
14. Be Happy Children
