Rating: NN
Paul Weller may still argue that he’s not suffering from writer’s block, but judging from how his songwriting has declined over the last few albums, he’s definitely been in a rut. A covers album is naturally in order, but selecting songs that he claims “weren’t particularly my favourites but ones I could reinterpret, play around with and make my own” doesn’t seem like a successful strategy. Weller obviously lacks a real feel for the Carpenters’ Close To You and Sister Sledge’s Thinking Of You, but he does a bang-up job strumming out Gordon Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain, and the cocktail bar version of Neil Young’s Birds is exceptionally charming. A stripped-down acoustic concept would’ve better suited his voice and provided the sonic consistency the set sorely lacks. The first run comes with a six-track “bonus” disc of leftovers, but there’s a good reason why these songs didn’t make the album cut.