Unchangingman Weller rocks on

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Following a brutal R 'n' B swipe across the bows of 'Til Tomorrow, with its rasping, no-frills white soul, Weller decided it wasn't going to be two slices and a cup of sweet tea after all. Instead, he picked over his current album, Heliocentric, visiting all its more intimate, pastoral places and changing the mood from ritual to romance.

The mood was laid-back. When the guv'nor asked if "it sounds all right out there", one punter shouted, "there's not much action, it's like watching a bleedin' film". But Weller's done his not-so-angry, young-man act for long enough to have softened.

He's the Keeper, a Ronnie Lane tribute, complete with blistering Gibson SG solo, ushered in Robert Kirby and a 16-piece orchestra. Weller's chosen Kirby because he arranged for Nick Drake, but it took a while for the strings to emerge from the electronic fug. The ensemble finally came into its own during several jams, which suggested Weller's been listening to Santana's Abraxas. The acoustic ballad With Time and Temperance was chased down, in a rare moment of Wellonian wit, by the maudlin There is no Drinking, After You're Dead. Cans were then raised for You do Something to Me and The Changing Man, an irresistible stomper fashioned after Family's In My Own Time.

Without tinkering with the recipe too much, Weller achieved a fine balance between mod and smart hippy without ever having to take off his metaphorical peacock suit. Result.

Paul Weller
Roundhouse
Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, NW1 8EH