Paul Weller
deservedly regained his status as the Modfather with his second solo album,
Wild Wood
. Actually, the album is only tangentially related to
mod
, since
Weller
picks up on the classicism of his debut, adding heavy elements of pastoral
British folk
and
Traffic
-styled trippiness. Add to that a yearning introspection and a clean production that nevertheless feels a little rustic, even homemade, and the result is his first true masterwork since ending
the Jam
. The great irony of the record is that many of the songs --
"Has My Fire Really Gone Out?,"
"Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)"
-- question his motivation and, as is apparent in his spirited performances, he reawakened his music by writing these searching songs. Though this isn't as adventurous as
the Style Council
, it succeeds on its own terms, and winds up being a great testament from an artist entering middle age. And, it helped kick off the
trad rock
that dominated British music during the '90s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine