Paul Weller
Sonik Kicks
(Island)
"Electronic", "experimental" and "tough-sounding" is how Paul Weller, right, has described his 11th solo studio album, and it's hard to argue with most of that – or with the notion that Sonik Kicks continues the stylistic renaissance which began with 2008's 22 Dreams and continued with the Mercury Award-nominated Wake Up The Nation. There are echoes here of everything from late-period Jam to mid-period Style Council. In the Augustus Pablo-style melodica dub of Study In Blue there's even a flavour of the 11-minute Kosmos, from his under-appreciated first solo album. It means that his other claim for Sonik Kicks – that it is "groundbreaking, at least for me" – seems a little self-deprecating: he's always pushed at the limits of his own musical experience. Apart from on Sleep, a 20-second sonic squall, what electronica there is is used as punctuation or fill-in. If there's a prevailing style, it's guitar-driven psychedelia, stomping drums and – on opener Green – the sort of trippy production trickery we're more used to finding on acid-drenched 1960s wig-outs.
Barry Didcock
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article