22 Dreams, Paul Weller's first new release in three years, coming July 22 on YepRoc Records!Noel Gallagher, Graham Coxon and others join Weller for twenty-one kaleidoscopic tracks of rock, soul, avant garde, electronica and more.
One year in the making. Seventy minutes in length. Twenty-one songs. 22 Dreams.
After a three year recording hiatus - during which he played two historic concert series in NYC and LA devoting one evening each to his Jam, Style Council, and solo catalogs, and earned Lifetime Achievement honors at the 2007 Brit Awards, among other highlights - Paul Weller returns on July 22 with 22 Dreams, his ninth solo album and the most ambitious of his career.
22 Dreams is not a return to form. It is not "Weller's best record since [fill in your favorite album here.]" It is a complete flowering of every musical impulse this artistic polymath has previously hinted at, and then some: rock, funk, soul, freak folk, free jazz, krautrock, classical, spoken word, electronica, and beyond.
"I've never understood the need to put music into boxes" says Weller. "I could listen to Debussy one minute, then some avant-garde jazz album, then Curtis Mayfield the next. To me, it all comes from the same source."
22 Dreams was co-produced by Weller and Simon Dine (Adventures in Stereo, Noonday Underground) and recorded at Weller's own Black Barn Studios in Surrey. Weller co-wrote the album's first single, "Echoes Round The Sun," with Oasis' Noel Gallagher. A shimmering blast of pure energy, the song is destined to join The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" and The Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun" as an instant anthem of British rock. Other guests on the album include Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on the hazy soft shoe of "Black River," and modern day mod Little Barrie, who contributes frantic guitar work to the album's title track.
22 Dreams concludes with a four-song suite, which flows seamlessly from stark spoken word of "God" - co-written with ex-Stone Rose Aziz Ibrahim - to the mellotron and moog experiment "111" ("I've never done anything as full tilt as this," says Weller), to the wistful acoustic stomp of "Sea Spray," before concluding with the six minute instrumental "Night Lights," another experimental track which deploys everything from tabla and tape loops to the sounds of an electrical storm which rained down, serendipitously, during the final sessions for the album.
Paul Weller will tour the U.S. later this year. Stay tuned for more information!
The 22 Dreams digital album will be available for EARLY purchase in the Yep Roc Web Shop next week! At that time, we'll also be taking pre-orders for the CD. All CD pre-orders will come with two free bonus MP3s - "Rise and Fall" and "Rip the Pages Up (Brendan Lynch mix)" - available for download in your Stash immediately after checkout.
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