Paul Weller - Paul Weller

I don't think that there is a better album that is just summer. Summer in a plastic disc. But not just any summer. The summer depicted on this album is definitely British; warm, gentle and laid back. When I listen to this album I imagine lying on a grass bank next to a slowly meandering river, birds flying above and a blue sky dotted with white fluffy clouds.....

 ....it's a bloody good job I can imagine a summer like this because we seldom get them! The British summer is a myth. It must be. I'm sure that we can all remember from our childhoods summers filled with long, dry and warm days. Days that never seemed to end; playing football, messing around in rivers or the sea, riding around on bikes with T-shirts tied around our waists. I know I can. But as the years progress and I experience another disappointing summer, weather wise that is, I'm beginning to have doubts. It's not that our summers are a total wash-out, it's just that they are not as good as I remember them. Instead of continuous sunshine with the occasional wet spell, we get the reverse; where sunny days are the exception rather than the rule.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that childhood summer memories are implanted at birth. Matrix style. A national consciousness scam to keep us happy. If this is the case then albums such as this are vital to the national mood.

'Paul Weller' is full of laid back grooves, sunshine, lemonade, warm evenings and clear skies. A quick listen to 'Above The Clouds' and I'm immediately drifting through an azure sky buoyed by it's gentle rhythm. 'Clues' is late summer in the city; open top bus rides, meandering conversations and gentle breezes. Anyone who suggests that pop,music inst an art form should listen to this. It's every bit a British summer as a painting by Constable or poem by Wordsworth. I could go on ("please don't") but I won't.

 So as we embark on another summer together perhaps, just perhaps, if we all play this album we might just get what we want - a nice summer. Not too hot and not too cold neither. And if not? Well we can turn to our memories - it never rains there - and take comfort in the thought that "Never mind, next year will be better. A scorcher!".

Post script - It's just started to rain!