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#44 album of 2012 – Sonik Kicks by Paul Weller

Written by

brian

in

Artist: Paul Weller

Album: Sonik Kicks

Paul Weller is a major star in England; has been since 1977. First he led the Jam, the most articulate and cautious of the first-wave punk stars. Then he led the Style Council, who made smooth soul/ R+B/ swing jazz musics. Then, under his own name, he spent two decades making paul_wellerrootsier soul-rock: brand new Classic Rock for the Adult Contemporary stations. I’ve never really been a fan. But suddenly, in 2012, at 54 years old, he essentially made his own Super Furry Animals album: flashy, groove-based, eclectic, ultra-modern, and above all, playful. (As Pooh observed, you never can tell with Top of the Pops stars.) Sonik Kicks he called it, presumably misspelling it to avoid licensing hassles from Sonic the Hedgehog; it went to #1 on the U.K. albums chart.

There’s a lot of kinds of music here, and you just need to wait a bit if you don’t like one, since most of the tracks range from 2:00 to 3:41 in length. Kling I Klang rushes by as a punk polka strafed by “futuristic” synth music from ’70s concept albums, and also by autoharp. By the Waters is soft, plaintive, and violin-centered. That Dangerous Age is peppy neo-Motown decorated with prog-rock organ and hip-hop/ techno beatwork. Study in Blue, the one long track here, is like Blondie’s Call Me reworked into drifting and exploratory jazz-pop that wanders towards ambient techno; it works far better for me than stuff like that generally does. Perhaps because it feeds into Dragonfly (heavy psychedelic pop that reminds me of Babylon Zoo), then When Your Garden’s Overgrown (upbeat psychedelic power-pop full of bright-eyed keyboard lines), then Around the Lake (a high-speed 2:11 of menacing two-chord bass, alien twittering, echoed vocals, and echoed everything else). Etc.

Paul Weller‘s lyrics on Sonik Kicks are sketchy and mostly play on mood, although songs like That Dangerous Age show a continued talent for personality profiles. The song structures are straight-ahead and mostly play on mood, although a few — the slower ones, mostly — have nicely imaginative melodies. There are a lot of moods here, but the overriding one, to me, seems to be creative play. No wonder I’m warming to the guy.

– Brian Block

To see the rest of our favorites, visit our Favorite Albums of 2012 page!

 

Comments

5 responses to “#44 album of 2012 – Sonik Kicks by Paul Weller”

  1. Jenny

    I love Paul Weller. The first time I ever heard him was when a friend from Belfast sent me a mix tape in the mid 1990s that included several of his songs. Since I was in the Peace Corps at the time, I had to wait a bit until I could purchase some more of his music. I haven’t heard this album, though, so thanks for the review!

    Reply
  2. brian

    You’re welcome! Being in the Peace Corps is an excellent excuse in my book for falling behind on music. I should admit – the following is true, I’m afraid – that in the ’90s I seriously considered joining the Peace Corps. And the single most persuasive argument stopping me was that I didn’t think I could handle two years without regular access to electric music-playing devices.

    Reply
    1. Jenny

      Well… if you had gone where I went, that wouldn’t have been a constant problem. The first year I was in Armenia, we had little electricity, so I went through a lot of batteries listening to the radio and tape players. The second year, Armenia reconnected to a nuclear power plant that had closed in 1988 due to a massive earthquake. We were given iodine pills to take in case of an accident… to protect our thyroid glands. That’s pretty laughable, of course. In a nuclear accident, the last thing I’m going to be concerned about is my thyroid gland! But thanks to the nuclear power plant, we did have 24/7 electricity during my second year. It was a pretty profound improvement.

      Quite a few volunteers were musical. Several played guitars. I did lots of singing in jazz clubs and with an opera choir. One guy was even in an Armenian/American band called Snack. They used to play gigs for Peace Corps parties and even made an album!

      The Peace Corps was a fun thing to do in my early 20s. Once was enough, though!

      Reply
      1. brian

        Aw, I missed this comment reply in real time, but thanks for the stories! I was hoping for some; the Peace Corps is interesting. I like that, in the absence of electricity for the first year (and probably also in the presence of it for the second), you improvised music of your own. I have an MP3 by a band called Snack!, but it’s probably unrelated. Unless yours had a song called “Unsaid”, in which case, ooh, nifty. It’s a good song.

        If you read this comment: what-all were you doing in Armenia? That is, assignment-wise?

        Reply
        1. Jenny

          I was an English teacher. I taught little kids, teenagers, and adults. I also wrote a cookbook for American expats, worked on a project with the USDA to use dried produce in recipes, and taught cooking to Armenians. And I did lots of singing.

          I’m glad I did it, but when it was over, I was definitely ready to leave. Within a couple of months, though, I was ready to go abroad again.

          Reply

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