As the promotional material for Paul Weller’s 12th solo album reminds us, it’s been nearly 40 years since the debut album from the Jam, the mod-punk band that launched his career. Ever the contrarian, he apparently chooses to “celebrate” In The City’s issue not with a deluxe retrospective tour as many of his peers are doing, but instead by making new music. “It’s not about looking back,” he’s quoted as saying, going on further to talk of creating ever-new additions to his vast legacy, eternal modernist that he is.
So, why does most of A Kind Revolution sound like Weller’s been listening to nothing but his scratchy old ’70s soul 45s? Weller’s way forward has always been in his rear-view mirror. A Kind Revolution sets some of his most reflective lyrics to Watergate-era soul pastiches—it could’ve been called 10 Flavors Of R&B. Not that it starts that way: Opener “Woo Sé Mama” resembles the Faces at their most Meters-damaged, featuring vocal cameos from expatriate ’60s soul divas P.P. Arnold and Madeline Bell. “Nova” appears to be a David Bowie homage, a glam space opera that’s seemingly a cut-up of “Space Oddity” and “Ziggy Stardust.” From there, we get tastes of everything from JBs-style funk (“She Moves With The Fayre,” featuring a Robert Wyatt cameo) to Blaxploitation soundtracks (“New York,” “Satellite Kid”), even “Hopper,” an odd psych-Beatles ode to American realist painter Edward. Weller has always created a fine present out of traces of the past; A Kind Revolution is a funkier present.
—Tim Stegall
