From: <A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/arts/music/02RAND.html?pagewanted=1" TARGET=_blank>The New York Times[/url]<P>Paul Weller: No Longer Competing With His Younger Self<BR>By MAC RANDALL<P>FOR more than 25 years, the British singer, songwriter and guitarist Paul Weller has served as a perfect example of the pop culture divide that yawns between America and Britain.<P>If you're American, and not an Anglophile, rock critic or cultural historian specializing in the punk movement of the 1970's, odds are that Mr. Weller's name is unfamiliar to you. If you're British, odds are that you consider him an icon. <BR> <BR>Between 1977 and 1982, as leader of a passionate and decidedly left-wing rock trio called the Jam, Mr. Weller captivated a generation of British youth with songs that set righteous fury and idealism to rough-hewn melodies and hopped-up beats. He and his bandmates, the bassist Bruce Foxton and the drummer Rick Buckler, became superstars in their homeland. Arguably, their distinctive blend of punk, power pop and 60's-style R & B has had a more lasting effect on the direction of music in Britain than the work of their contemporaries, the Sex Pistols and the Clash. <P>Two decades after the Jam's breakup, Mr. Weller â?? who will perform at the Hamerstein Ballroom in Manhattan on Feb. 21 â?? remains one of his country's favorite rock musicians. His latest album, "Illumination," entered the British charts at No. 1 last summer. (It has just been released in the United States, on the Yep Roc label.) Yet the vigor of the Jam continues to cast an imposing shadow over his more recent efforts. <P>Mr. Weller, now 44, has often projected the uncomfortable aura of an artist competing with his younger self and dissatisfied with the results. He would play the occasional Jam song in concert and discuss the band if asked but, given a choice, he preferred not to delve too deep into past history. <P>"Starting in the early 90's," he said by phone from London recently, "I wanted to make it again on my own terms, and not have to rely on old stuff." <P>His ambivalence toward his own legacy finally ended in 2001, when Mr. Weller embarked on a one-man tour of Europe and America. Without a backing band for the first time in his career, he leaned on older material and made a discovery. "Playing the old tunes back to back with the new ones broke some barriers for me," he said. "Stripping every song down to voice and guitar, I could see it was all one body of work."<P>His new CD suggests that reconnecting with his back catalog was also a boost to his creativity. Recorded in a series of three-day sessions, with Mr. Weller playing most of the instruments himself, "Illumination" is his most casual album. Whether enunciating his way through a thicket of acoustic guitars on "Leafy Mysteries," crooning the jazz-infused ballad "Who Brings Joy" or barking out lyrics with his trademark blue-eyed soul gusto on "Standing Out in the Universe," Mr. Weller sounds relaxed, confident and pleased to be in his own skin.<P>"It's much more enjoyable for me when the recording process is simple," he explained. "What I do is pretty basic, after all. You play a song, and at the end of it you know what you've got. You don't tart it up later."<P>Mr. Weller could never have been accused of "tarting it up" in his early work with the Jam, which included snarling anthems like "In the City" and "This Is the Modern World." In five years, the Jam recorded six albums and 18 singles, each topping the last in ferocity, sophistication and sales. Then, at the peak of its success, Mr. Weller dissolved the group, stating that he needed new musical challenges. His bandmates were stunned, and fans cried betrayal. "Some of them haven't forgiven me to this day," Mr. Weller said.<P>With the keyboardist Mick Talbot, Mr. Weller formed another band, the Style Council. Though still recognizably pop, it was more eclectic than the Jam, dabbling in jazz and lounge music. Its first efforts were well received, but over time, listeners found it increasingly hard to connect with Mr. Weller's preoccupations. The final Style Council album, "Modernism: A New Decade," from 1989, was rejected by its record label, Polydor, and the band slipped into oblivion.<P>Mr. Weller retreated from the music business for the next two years. When he re-emerged, it was as a solo artist. His sound had changed again; in place of the Style Council's slickness was a more organic mix of tough rock, pastoral folk and rootsy soul. Most notably, his voice, once strained and wayward in pitch, had matured into a warm, full-bodied instrument.<P>"When I listen back to the Jam and the Style Council, my singing sounds stilted," Mr. Weller said. "I was trying to attain something, but too much thought was going into it. On the first solo record, I dropped all that. I just opened my mouth and sang." <P>Mr. Weller's first three solo albums â?? "Paul Weller" (1992), "Wild Wood" (1994) and "Stanley Road" (1995) â?? brought him back into favor with critics and consumers (at least British consumers); subsequent releases have continued in the same vein. Some reviewers deride his current style as "Dadrock," music that shouldn't appeal to self-respecting teenagers. <P>All the same, his influence is stronger now than ever, and clearly audible in the songs of Oasis, Blur and other British pop acts. Still, the question lingers: Why has Mr. Weller yet to find fame in America? In the 80's, the answer seemed obvious. With both the Jam and the Style Council, Mr. Weller wrote songs steeped in British slang and British concerns: the class system, the fading of empire, the injustices of the Thatcher regime. But since 1992, his lyrics have become simpler, focusing on love, nature and the vicissitudes of human emotion. In theory, his new music has universal appeal; in reality, he continues to exist under the radar in this country.<P>"I don't know why, other than that it's difficult for any British band to break through in the States," he said. "But I don't lose sleep over it. A lot of the fans I have in America saw the Jam live when they were kids, over 20 years ago, and you can still see how much it mattered to them. Honestly, I'm just happy to be able to come and play for them."
