Paul Weller Wild Wood CD - Import

Personnel: Paul Weller (vocals, guitar, strings, harmonica, piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron, Moog, bass, percussion); Steve Craddock, Robert Howard, Dave Liddle (guitar); Jacko Peake (flute, horns); Helen Turner (organ); Mick Talbot (Hammond organ); Max Beesley (Wurlitzer, percussion, background vocals); Brendan Lynch (MiniMoog, Mellotron, Stylophone, percussion); Marco Nelson (bass, background vocals); Yolanda Charles (bass); Steve White (drums); Dee C. Lee, Simon Fowler (background vocals).
Recorded at The Manor, Oxford, England from April to May, 1993.
Paul Weller deservedly regained his status as the Modfather with his second solo album, Wild Wood. Actually, the album is only tangentially related to mod, since Weller picks up on the classicism of his debut, adding heavy elements of pastoral British folk and Traffic-styled trippiness. Add to that a yearning introspection and a clean production that nevertheless feels a little rustic, even homemade, and the result is his first true masterwork since ending the Jam. The great irony of the record is that many of the songs -- "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?," "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)" -- question his motivation and, as is apparent in his spirited performances, he reawakened his music by writing these searching songs. Though this isn't as adventurous as the Style Council, it succeeds on its own terms, and winds up being a great testament from an artist entering middle age. And, it helped kick off the trad rock that dominated British music during the '90s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Arguably Weller's best solo album, and certainly the one where all his influences first congealed into something uniquely his own. WILD WOOD's template would once again seem to be Traffic--Weller's surprisingly soulful vocals most often recall a gruffer version of Steve Winood, and there's even a jazz flute in the concluding "Holy Man" jam. Weller's songs however, are not so easily pigeonholed; an achingly beautiful acoustic ballad like "Country," for example, owes a stylistic debt to no one except its composer.Rolling Stone (10/20/94, p.146) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...Resolutely pre-punk in its spirit, this album gives retrochic an unexpected twist. With its echoes of vintage Traffic...WILD WOOD could have been recorded in 1970..."
Entertainment Weekly (5/27/94, p.88) - "...pits the gruff-punk charge of the band against the refinement and musicality of his later group, the genre-hopping Style Council....It's a record full of intricate nooks and crannies that begs for exploration...." - Rating: A-
Q (12/99, p.76) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s."
Q (6/00, p.63) - Ranked #77 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "A warm, raw, uplifting but endlessly self-questioning record....this is the sound of an artist finding a more emotional voice..."
Q (7/00, p.141) - Included in Q's "The Best Male Angst Albums Of All Time"
Q (1/94, p.86) - Included in Q's list of `The 50 Best Albums Of 1993' - "...showcases an artist maturing before our very eyes..."
Q (p.133) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A] change of direction that both demonstrated a new maturity and ushered in the whole '90s trad-rock boom."
Uncut (p.116) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "WILD WOOD still smells fresh as newly cut pine. 'Country' steals redemption from despair in three minutes..."
Stereo Review (7/94, p.86) - Performance: Extraordinary / Recording: Good - "...Weller has always possessed the uncanny ability to interlace the personal with the political, crafting lyrics that can be read on both levels. But it is as a musical force that Weller looms most impressively on WILD WOOD..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.121) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "WILD WOOD remains Paul Weller's most exquisitely balanced album, with soul stirrings, pastoral folk-rock vibes and stinging REVOLVER guitars dissolving into an elegant and exciting sonic hybrid."
Record Collector (magazine) (pp.98-99) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The album still sounds like a man having fun, which is infectious. 'Hung Up' remains a great lost single..."