Weller is on fire here. This shit smokes! One rockin’ song after another. Long gone is his the English accent that permeated just about every song he recorded with THE JAM. His current vocal style, while not quite as reminiscent of his work with THE STYLE COUNCIL as one would think, is still very rooted in rhythm and blues. He sounds more like National Kato from URGE OVERKILL (God, I miss those guys!) than the Paul Weller I remember. There is plenty of rawk here that is every bit as hard and could have given the URGE boys a run for their mod money. This lineup of musicians backing him on this 2 disc live opus are unbelievable. This hardly sounds like the work of a solo artist. He gives his boys plenty of room to shine. What we have here is great songwriting; killer lead guitar and an awesome drum solo on the WHO inspired bombastic bam of “In the Crowd”. This, at times, almost sounds like the work of a jam band. “Foot of the Mountain” definitely has that vibe. After being assaulted with some of the most passionate guitar playing that would make NEIL YOUNG tip his hat, the listener is treated with some of the best groovin’ chemistry this five-piece band has to offer.

It’s real hard to pick favorites here. The aforementioned “In the Crowd” is kind of hard to top as well as “Foot of the Mountain”. “Blink & You’ll Miss It”, “Paper Smile”, “Porcelain Gods/I Walk On Gilded Splinters”, and “Come On/Let’s Go” all kill. Weller can croon ballads with the best of them. His cover of “Wishing Upon a Star” and “Long Hot Summer” prove this eleven fold. What can this guy not do? Are metal and prog next on his list? Of the twenty-three songs here, there is absolutely no filler. It goes from really good to great to phenomenal. Disc 2 is a little more diverse and immediately gratifying for my tastes, although disc 1 is definitely solid. The first CD is kind of what I expected and the second disc is where he took me by surprise. What’s even more impressive is that all these recordings are from one show! Only so many live albums culled from a single show could I reserve such magnanimous sentiments for. We are talking “Live at Leeds” by THE WHO daddy o! I see this making my 2006 top 10 with relative ease.

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: www.paulweller.com

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