Perhaps most interestingly is the experimental touches of film soundtracks and electronic hauntology sounds that come through louder than before. The Beatles are still king of the hill, but there’s lots of late ’60s Beach Boys vocal moments on most tracks here, and plenty of modern soul/disco production touches. On Sunset harks back somewhat to the experimental pop tones of the 22 Dreams/Wake Up The Nation era, though the reference points have subtly shifted. Instead he loosely themes his albums and keeps churning them out. He doesn’t worry about nailing ten track masterpieces for the ages. However it something of a curate’s egg, a theme of many of Weller’s album. There’s no cause for panic – On Sunset is generally a quality album. And On Sunset has big boots to fill after True Meanings saw some quarters hailing it as his best ever LP. Sometimes, however, it falls completely flat – see letting Simon Dine take creative control on Sonik Kicks to produce subpar Primal Scream-isms directly after the pithy brilliance of Wake Up The Nation. Sometimes this is brilliant news – True Meanings glorious deep dive into his soul followed the lacklustre songwriting of A Kind Revolution, for example. Over the past two decades he has not put consecutive albums out that share that much DNA. The one constant in his career is his restlessness. It’s why he folded The Jam to expand his musical horizons, it’s why the last Style Council album is a dance record, it’s why 22 Dreams was his miffed reaction to the constant ‘Dad Rock’ digs that had began to seriously miff him. One of PW’s strengths is his ability to play with people’s misconceptions, though. And to be frank that was not something you would have seen coming Weller is very at home in Surrey, thank you very much. And musically it isn’t – though with the blonde swept-back hair/perma-tan look, Day-Glo artwork, and title it is at least aesthetically his LA album. “This isn’t my West Coast record”, said the Modfather ahead of his 15th solo album.
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