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Paul Weller: 66 review – sumptuous rumination on older age springs some surprises

In this elegiac 17th solo album made with guests including Noel Gallagher, Weller contemplates mortality with sun-dappled ballads – but there’s still an experimental edge

There are still hints of the experimentalism of Wake Up the Nation or Sonik Kicks here – one of their musical touchstones was Krautrock, and there’s a distinctly motorik cast to the rhythm of Jumble Queen, while In Full Flight, a fantastic collaboration with production duo White Label, offers up a kind of dubbed-out, psychedelic take on early 60s soul, if such a thing can be imagined. If Sleepy Hollow slightly overdoes the flute-assisted whimsy, and the Covid-inspired I Woke Up feels a little overwrought, then they’re compensated for by Ship of Fools, a collaboration with Madness frontman Suggs that carries something of the Kinks ’ Afternoon Tea in its DNA; and the lovely, slow exhalation of Rise Up Singing, bolstered by Hannah Peel’s sumptuous Philly soul orchestration and a guitar solo that nods in the direction of You’re the Best Thing. Flying Fish rests on disco drums and burbling synths and features a distinctly Abba-esque melody: to be specific, it sounds pleasingly like The Winner Takes It All, but its gleeful buoyancy makes 66’s preoccupation with ageing and the passing of time seem curiously besides the point.

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