Paul Weller very rarely has been one to adhere to convention. Whatever venture he has undertaken throughout the years the Modfather has almost invariably pushed his own boundaries and surprised, often outright confounded, fans with his experimental outlook.
Suffice to say, ‘Sonik Kicks’ takes this yet another step further.
The album is in essence the third in a trilogy of exploratory records that began with 2008’s ‘22 Dreams’ and 2010’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Wake Up The Nation’. And whilst these 2 offerings, although far from linear, managed to retain some of the characteristics that made Weller an icon, ‘Sonik Kicks’ is as far a departure as you could hope from the days of The Jam and The Style Council.
Imagine a man who has been making music for 40 years, which in itself is hard to believe given he is only 53-years-old. Imagine that throughout those 40 years said man has amassed a cacophony of pandemonium encompassing every instrument imaginable in his sagely old mind. Imagine every single weird and wonderful idea cascading around in there spilled out and was unleashed in one short, punchy 14 song collection.
Got that mental picture? Chances are you’re still not even close.
The tracks melt into each other in such frenetic fashion it’s almost as if there’s no time to draw breath, never giving the listener a chance to find any true level of comfort before decimating and then reconstructing every convention you thought you had established about them all in time for the next song.
Kicking things off in suitably bizarre fashion is ‘Green’. Listening to the opening strains of this drug fuelled acid rock stomper emanating from your earphones you would be forgiven for thinking you had accidentally picked up a Primal Scream cd. What follows are two infuriatingly buoyant and infectious little ditties in the form of ‘The Attic’ and ‘Kling I Klang’ that rattle along seamlessly building to a crescendo before bringing us straight back down with haunting instrumental ‘Sleep Of The Serene’.
In truth the more devoted fans of Weller may see fit to chastise this record as perhaps a step too far in their idol’s legacy, but even they can take solace that there are one or two moments where retreads familiar territory. The Arcadian strings of ‘By The Waters’, for example clearly tips a nod to 1993’s second solo effort ‘Wild Wood’, while closing track ‘Be Happy Children’ plays through almost like an 80s power ballad that leaves you expectant of a climax that never quite transpires.
And even if the man himself looked like straying too far down the psychedelic trail rest assured that the presence Ocean Colour Scene powerhouse and long timeWeller guitarist Steve Craddock, not to mention guest appearances from Noel Gallagher and Graham Coxon acted as some form of mod anchor that just about managed to rein him in before things became that little bit too obscure.
Paul Weller has himself described ‘Sonik Kicks’ as a ‘groundbreaking’ record. Admittedly he made this statement as a comparison purely to his own back catalogue rather than a narcissistic statement of grandeur, but the fact is had he been speaking in general terms it would still have been hard to disagree. Groundbreaking does not necessarily go hand in hand with earth shattering, in this case meaning merely that as a collective nothing of this ilk has really been heard before.
If nothing else it leaves you wondering which juncture his next output can possibly take. Watch this space.
