I gave Weller’s 22 Dreams another play first thing this morning. It all came about after a particularly vivid dream.
Hey! I know. Let’s play 22 Dreams at 5am to get me through the first work shift of the day. Job’s a good ‘un, etc.
I absolutely rinsed this album when it was first released at the start of the summer of 2008. It pretty much defined that period for me. I had to force myself to stop listening to this and nothing else as the year drew to a close.
Seventeen years have somehow passed between then and now. 22 Dreams is still an outstanding, mixed up album.
There’s so many disparate parts that somehow all hang together around the theme of a dream; Northern Soul, psychedelia, Krautrock. It really shouldn’t work, but it does.
It reminded me of listening to the White Album from start to finish on the punishing sound system at the Colchester Arts Centre last week. So many different styles, what a racket. But a bloody glorious racket at that.
22 Dreams started the resurgence period for Weller. Every other album since then has been outstanding. No bad feat, considering he delivers pretty much each and every summer.
The album carries itself, rewarding you when you reach the end. It sounds like a chore, but it really isn’t. It’s like coming to the season close of a boxset that you’ve binged. You’re left wanting more.
A lot of crap is written about Weller. Erm, just read the above.
But time and time again, he comes up with the goods. His back catalogue is now looking pretty much unrivalled in terms of UK artists. He’ll leave quite a legacy.