Paul Weller 66 Review: Star collaborators help The Modfather celebrate in sublime style

Paul Weller

66

POLYDOR

Up until lockdown’s Fat Pop, each Paul Weller album post-2008 possessed a distinct tang. But like its predecessor, 66 prefers to build on tested patterns, from Flying Fish’s slick ’70s disco to the celestial soul-electronica of In Full Flight.

Up front is the delightful folk strum of Ship Of Fools – lyrics by Suggs – and Jumble Queen, a head-banging Mod-rocker co-write with Noel Gallagher, auguring an unsettling mid-LP suite that sounds like late-era Style Council for ever more uncertain times, the Gallic waltz of My Best Friend’s Coat chief among them. There are missteps in the over-emoted Sleepy Hollow and I Woke Up, but otherwise earworm melodies abound, most strikingly in A Glimpse Of You and eco-lamenting Burn Out. There’s a sense throughout of Weller, the inveterate seeker, grasping for something tantalisingly out of reach – and, in doing so, creating a record of recurrent intrigue and frequent sublimity.

Track listing:

Ship of Fools

Flying Fish

Jumble Queen

Nothing

My Best Friend’s Coat

Rise Up SingingI

Woke Up

A Glimpse of You

Sleepy Hollow

In Full Flight

Soul Wandering

Burn Out

66 is out now on Polydor

Listen/Buy: Spotify | Apple Music |Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV

Read about the making of 66 in MOJO's exclusive cover interview with Paul Weller. More information and to order a copy HERE.