Wake Up The Nation – Paul Weller (Island)

The career of Paul Weller has been notable for its versatility and evolution and this album does nothing to change that view. It’s another set of sharp and incisive songs that cover a lot of stylistic  ground encompassing all of his touch stones – soul, new wave, art-pop and rock n’ roll.

It’s his tenth solo album and unlike some of his contemporaries he seems to be gaining in momentum over the past few releases. While not every song will be to everybody’s taste that’s kind of the point with Weller.

The soul traditionalists will respond to No Tears To Cry (which is a superb showcase for one type of Weller vocal, the rough hewn soul singer). The title track is a  socio-political call to arms that will receive favour with the “Weller for PM” crew while. The albums opener Moonshine is a British bar band rave-up that recalls his new wave beginnings, albeit coloured by enough ‘bleeps’ and ‘wizzes’ as to suggest a nod to electronica.

And that’s just the first three songs!

Throw in a couple of instrumentals (one in waltz time) and any number of other genre mash ups and you got an album from an artist who is still pushing the envelope. Perhaps the only song that could have found a logical home in one of his previous incarnations is Aim High, which devoted Style Councillors will find to their liking.

Wake Up The Nation is an album that travels and you need to be prepared to make the journey with it. It covers the small and strange and the big and momentous – an example of the latter is the anthemic Find The Torch, Burn The Plans which is perhaps the most bombastic piece Weller has offered in several years. It seems like a great candidate for a show closer in the live context.

Much has been made of Trees – a deep soul groove song that features the most raw vocal on the album and wanders in and out of Big Audio Dynamite type territory. It’s a short piece of work that is almost and album’s worth of genres in itself.

There’s a lot of like about this album, in its own right and as a pointer to Weller’s upcoming Australian tour which promises to be an intriguing event (on a number of levels)