Paul Weller - 22 Dreams

“Paul Weller’s all over the place with his ninth solo album—he visits all his touchstones, but there’s less nostalgia and more experimentation infused into the tracks than usual. And that’s a good thing. About half of the material riffs on Weller’s trademark British soul rock; think “Nuggets” for the Britpop set. Swirly pop gem “All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)” fits right there, as does the co-write (with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher) “Echoes Round the Sun,” which rides a Bo Diddley beat across a river of distorted guitars, shimmering keyboards and mantra-like vocals. But then there are moments like “Song for Alice,” an entrancing, near-psychedelic instrumental. On a grander scale, the closing quartet of intertwining songs is about as far out as Weller gets, veering from a spoken word about deities to a fractured mellotron collage to the mutating soundscape of closer “Night Lights.” —Troy Carpenter”