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fair measure of success within the context of a music career could logically be calculated by a greatest hits collection. Artists should rightly be allowed to view themselves from a position of legitimacy when their previous work has been sifted, annotated and compiled into a separately marketed package.
So where does Paul Weller fit along that continuum? The Jam/Style Council frontman had a potent run with his former bands before going the solo route with his jazzy eponymous 1992 album, and his subsequent 20-plus-year stint under his own name has been illustrious in its own right, both critically and commercially. Consider this fact for a moment: Paul Weller’s career, in total, has generated an astonishing 32 hits collections (including B-sides/rarities compilations) and six box sets.
For Weller’s part, he remains largely unaffected by any notions of his historical importance. For him it’s just the work, and he likes doing the work. The best of his solo output has been documented in two hits compilations, 1998’s Modern Classics and the just released More Modern Classics.
“It’s pretty straightforward, because it’s pretty much all the A-sides from the last 15, 16 years, since Modern Classics, volume one,” Weller says by phone from his London home. “It was my idea, for better or whatever. I just wanted it to be on the shelves. It’s not there to be (a No. 1 album), I just wanted it to be in the racks.”
Essentially, More Modern Classics tracks the timeline between 2000’s Heliocentric and Weller’s most recent solo album, 2012’s stellar Sonik Kicks, compiling the aforementioned push sides of their respective singles.
The album’s incredible consistency is a testament to Weller’s artistic vision, considering the stylistic diversity that exists in the catalog that spawned More Modern Classics’ chronological set list.
“It’s hard to say objectively,” Weller says, “but for me, it gets better toward the end, so that’s always a good sign.”
Weller’s stylistic shifts are certainly no recent development. His entire career has been defined by a desire to continually move his work in eclectic new directions and he’s been rewarded for it — 1994’s Wild Wood and 2010’s Wake Up the Nation were nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize, while 1995’s guitar-centric Stanley Road and 2002’s Illumination topped the U.K. charts. Four years ago, Weller was bestowed NME’s Godlike Genius Award.
“The sounds have changed along the way, but I think my productivity is much higher now,” Weller says. “I’ve put three albums out in the last six years, so it’s probably more than the first stage of it. My methods of working have changed along the way, my perception of what I should do changes all the time. So for me it’s sort of an upward trajectory, really. It’s a personal sort of statement, it’s just me finding my way on a journey of some kind, without getting too metaphysical about it.”
Even with the accolades and commercial success, there is a tendency with a project of this nature to dwell a bit on the past and second-guess decisions long since made in the naked glare of hindsight. While Weller admits to a certain degree of disappointment with regard to certain small aspects of his catalog, it is clear that he may possess one of the healthiest attitudes surrounding his work and its perception of any artist in the business.
“Not everyone likes what you do and you can’t plan for that anymore than you can write for it,” Weller says. “Looking back, like way back to Style Council with my last official album, which was Confessions of a Pop Group, I thought that was a pretty good album but I never lost sleep over the fact that everyone hated it. That’s show biz; you can’t please ‘em all. And sometimes it’s about timing. Sometimes you ‘re totally in tune and you connect with your audience and you all seem to be going on a very similar sort of path and other times you miss each other entirely. The longer you do this, the more you see that’s just the way it is, and you become a bit more philosophical about it.”
Even as Weller uses More Modern Classics to cast a backward glance at the past decade and a half of his storied solo career, he couldn’t help but look forward at the same time. The album’s final track, “Brand New Toy,” was the A-side of Weller’s Record Store Day single this year. Is the Ray Davies-tinged song a hint at his next inevitable step?
“It came out of me doing four or five demos, not necessarily for an album, really,” Weller says. “It was just me writing, getting ideas down, and I thought, ‘Yeah, that could work for a single,’ but it was really just a one-off thing.”
As far as Weller’s current tour is concerned, he’s not using this circuit to pointedly promote the release of More Modern Classics to the extent that the live set list mirrors the album’s contents. As one might expect, he just wants to put on the best possible show with the best possible material.
“The set includes some of the songs (from More Modern Classics) but it’s a mixture of old and new, from the last few albums, anyway,” Weller says. “It’s only fair that people know that. If anyone knows my work, we don’t really do the ‘greatest hits’ sort of show. Obviously I play a few things but it isn’t at all nostalgic, or, ‘Remember this one?’ and all that stuff. There’s a few old tunes in there but I like playing the new stuff.
“There’s that thing when people get in their post-40s where they stick to what they know and remember and not look for anything new — it certainly is in this country anyway — but I think it’s a disappointment, really. If you’re into music and you’re a fan of music, you’ve got to always keep looking for something new and embrace it, and not get caught up in this whole nostalgia trip. I find that really limiting.”
PAUL WELLER plays Bogart’s Friday with The Tigerlilies and The Gramotones. Get tickets/more info
here .
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
