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In May, Paul Weller will release his third album of new songs in just under three years – Fat Pop (Volume 1), written in lockdown and recorded last summer in his own Black Barn studio HQ. Intended as a compilation of very different tracks – from the electronic post-punk of Cosmic Fringes to the heartfelt orchestral sweep of Glad Times – it will showcase the many moods of an ever-changing man.
While many justly regard Weller as a standard bearer for a very specific aesthetic played out through the Jam, the Style Council and a prolific solo career, Weller has long embodied a more expansive form of modernism. He may act as consigliere to the likes of Noel Gallagher, but Weller is no hidebound traditionalist in thrall to the 1960s. Sharp of dress, but even sharper of tongue, he remains an unstoppable creative force in British culture, an artist who only seems to accelerate and improve as he goes on. Continue reading...