Paul Weller is the star of our newest free CD, Movin On, accessible with the September 2025 concern of Uncut, in outlets now.
The ten-track album consists of rarities, deep cuts and B-sides, together with blistering six-minute nearer “I Work In The Clouds”.
There have been few artists who’ve had a profession fairly like Weller’s – not least in his gorgeous transfer into kaleidoscopic experimentation in his center age. After final 12 months’s spectacular 66, he’s now returned with Discover El Dorado, a covers album that’s rather more than that: a “deeply private new album of reinterpretations”, it shines a lightweight on a few of Weller’s personal favorite songs, from the well-known – The Kinks’ “No person’s Idiot” to the Bee Gees’ “I Began A Joke” – to the obscure – particularly “Lawdy Rolla”, by French studio group The Guerillas.
To mark the brand new document, we’ve put collectively, along side the person himself, this survey of rarities and album tracks from one in every of his golden durations of exploration. It spans the eclectic, overdriven funk and fuzz rock of 2015’s Saturns Sample, his gritty 2017 soundtrack to Jawbone and the psychedelic soul and jazz of the identical 12 months’s A Form Revolution, and the acoustic, elegiac True Meanings (2018), drenched in strings.
Alongside the way in which, we’ll hear tender balladry give approach to motorik frenzy, digital gospel soften into dub, and rather more. Plus, there’s a style of the brand new Discover El Dorado, courtesy of the excellent “Lawdy Rolla”. Dig in.
See under for extra on the tracklisting…
1 Glide (Instrumental)
We start with this model from the deluxe expanded version of 2018’s True Meanings, a waltzing acoustic reverie as beautiful as something Weller’s ever put his title to. Because the fingerpicked notes from two acoustic guitars entangle, harp and pastoral strings blossom, earlier than the entire thing’s achieved in simply over two minutes.
2 The Ballad Of Jimmy McCabe
Laborious to imagine, however Jawbone (Music From The Movie) is the primary ever soundtrack Weller has tried his hand at. It’s to not be slept on, although: one of many highlights is that this strong acoustic ballad, hinting on the desperation and struggles of the movie’s lead character. The music suggests an historic people ballad, which works to put McCabe’s struggles in a protracted line of laborious instances for the working lessons.
3 I Spy
This slice of lilting folk-rock debuted because the B-side of Saturns Sample’s “Going My Approach”, but in addition appeared on 2022’s assortment of rarities, Will Of The Individuals. It’s completely poised, paying homage to the bucolic psychedelia of Visitors with its lazy sway, distinguished bass guitar, ’60s organ, piano, Echoplex results and – after all – Weller’s peerless soulful vocals.
4 Solar Goes
The B-side to Saturns Sample’s title observe, “Solar Goes” is one other demonstration of Weller’s melancholic, acoustic aspect – and but, there’s a deeply beautiful contact of cosmic Scouse psychedelia to it, from the ocean shanty chords and the wandering electrical lead guitar to the spaghetti western choir. It’s proof, ought to it’s wanted, that Weller’s muse prospers inside nearly any model.
5 Hopper (White Label Remix)
A remodeling that first appeared on the deluxe model of 2017’s A Form Revolution, this remix turns the New Orleans shuffle of the unique into a bit of atmospheric dub. It proves to be a positive accompaniment to Weller’s vocals, hymning the magic of Edward Hopper’s late-night, nightlife work. “In late evening bars the ghost of Hopper/Paints in such melancholy colors…”
6 The Soul Searchers (Richard Hawley Remix)
Opening True Meanings, this co-write and collaboration with Villagers’ Conor O’Brien got here on like Pentangle collaborating with Ennio Morricone; in its remix by the Sheffield songwriter and guitarist Richard Hawley, it’s given a pulsing disco exercise. Over tight drums and looping bass, Weller’s vocal echoes serenely earlier than lush, bitter strings flood the dancefloor.
7 Movin On
The lead single from True Meanings is among the most heartfelt, pure songs Weller has written. There’s no time for experimentation right here, no room for style collisions that might blunt the centered lyrics: “I’ve obtained love throughout/I don’t want nothing else…” As a substitute, his hovering vocals are backed by acoustic guitar, jazzy drums and the type of ornate strings and horns that surrounded Nick Drake on Bryter Layter (no marvel, then, that Weller labored with Drake’s arranger Robert Kirby on 2000’s Heliocentric).
8 Reward If You Wanna
Taken from the deluxe version of A Form Revolution, this transient snippet – a mantra meets jam, like one thing from the third LP of All Issues Should Go minimize right down to its essence – is written by Weller and all of his band, together with longtime lead guitarist Steve Cradock. A bluesy gospel shuffle, scattershot with some deliciously retro guitar runs, it builds and builds till a rising synth word brings it to a untimely shut.
9 Lawdy Rolla
Seemingly cat-nip for Weller, this obscure single by French group The Guerillas blended jazz, soul and rock earlier than vanishing into cult obscurity. Weller has introduced it again into the sunshine on his new covers album, Discover El Dorado, and toned down its extra fractious chants right into a rolling, swinging groove. At key moments, particularly the transcendent coda, London-born saxophonist Awoifaleke (Kevin) Haynes weaves religious, sinuous lead strains.
10 I Work In The Clouds
A tough to search out rarity, solely accessible presently on the Japanese version of Saturns Sample, this barnstorming krautrock epic (spanning nearly six minutes) deserves to be heard extra extensively. Once more written with all of Weller’s common band, it pirouettes between two chords, the spoken-word verses portray a faintly dystopian image of disconnection in a high-rise workplace. Unhinged lead guitar spits and sparks over the relentless drums and bass, thrillingly uncooked.
