22 Dreams

iTunes Review

Though he made his greatest impact as an anxious young man leading the mod-influenced Jam, Paul Weller has never stopped exploring the music’s history while pushing forward with touches of jazz, folk, Brit-Pop, and soul. With 22 Dreams, his expansive 2008 collection, Weller celebrates his 50th birthday with a panel of star collaborators, from Blur’s Graham Coxon and Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, to Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt and Noonday Underground’s Simon Dine (who co-wrote a handful of the tunes). Stylistically, Weller jumps all over the genres, beginning things as a British folksinger with “Light Nights” before breaking out the band for the title track. He hits the piano for the lonely soul ballad “Invisible,” turns jazz singer for the nightclub spaghetti western drama of “One Bright Star,” turns in a number of Curtis Mayfield soul-inspired tunes (“Have You Made Up Your Mind,” “Empty Ring”), tributes jazz pianist Alice Coltrane with the funky swamp-noir instrumental pulse of “Song for Alice,” adds some dance beats for “Echoes Round the Sun,” and recites some mystical spoken word (“God”). Weller’s a genuine renaissance man.