SATURNS PATTERN BY PAUL WELLER

There are a handful of artists I perhaps like more than Paul Weller (such as Elvis Costello, Squeeze, The Beatles) but Weller rivals all of them in the amount of good music he has put out and in his continued relevance and consistency today.

There is nothing artistically groundbreaking on his newest record SATURNS PATTERN.  It’s a trim 43 minute workout through Weller’s sound as filtered through all the British musicians who came after and copied him.  My favorite songs are the softer moments in particular the McCartneyesque Going My Way.

When Weller does rock out, it sounds like every British band you’ve loved of the last 30 years and that is not a bad thing in this case because they are all mimicking Weller.  In particular, this time around the sound is more Stone Roses than Small Faces

The last song on the record, the eight minute These City Streets, contains the line “We’ve still got a way to go” repeated like a mantra at the end.  I am glad a guy who has made as good music as Weller still feels this way and is not jaded.  Very few new music releases are as looked forward to by me as one from Paul Weller.