Wild Wood

It is yet another dull record from the British Isles. It has cool guitars and some interesting moments but it is not a noteworthy album by any means.

7/10 [DROP]

This album was like a brick wall for me. Country music from a guy from England. Just not my thing. Although it's being a little hypocritical because I love the Canadian 80s bands that would purposely sing with British accents.

Chill singer/songwriter music

A top 20 album for me and one of the better releases in the 1970’s. The combination of world weary anger, intelligent political commentary and great playing and production is just brilliant.

Strange one because this is definitely well produced but theres not much here IMO to warrant listening. Historical context maybe? Maybe not. Feel a 2 is harsh so bang down the middle 2.5/5. Raising to 3.

I just love it. Laid back vibes, great songs. It's all loose and neat and tidy. I'm happy to listen to it whenever.
Great cover art too.

I’m not finishing this, I’ve decided. This is so boring and annoying. This bitch is not a poet. He is not a singer. He is not even a competent personality. It is preposterous that I should have to listen to drivel like this during international women’s day. I’ma go listen to Lily Allen.
3.1/10

I'm really not sure about this one. There are a good few established paths for aging punks to take, but without getting too far into it, wise and poetry savvy singer-songwriter is very much one of them. And it's one where mileage varies *a lot*. Nick Cave is someone who I think is a good example of someone who is still making great, beautiful music that's slower, sadder, and more contemplative than his younger years. But Paul Weller kind of gives us the other side of the coin. I don't particularly care about The Jam, but they have a couple of pretty good songs. But now, in 1993, Paul Weller is trying to sell himself as kind of a folksy soulsman. But I do *not* think he pulls it off. This reminds me of late-era Van Morrison and Pearl Jam's rootsiest songs, with a hint of the era's Brit-pop for good measure: And I do not consider that a good thing. I don't really like Paul Weller's vocal approach, or lyrical approach, and I don't think there's much special about these songs. But what I think really dooms this album for me is that 1993 was during a new golden age for earnest, Singer-songwriter-y stuff. It was a time for exciting new artists to expand the genre, and for old favorites to re-invent themselves in exciting ways. But here, Paul Weller's entire sound is too tied to decades old ideas from music he likes for him to indulge in anything genuinely new and exciting. He puts a lot of weight on the fact that he embraces electronic influences here. But honestly, it sounds like he's just keeping it at a comfortable, unchallenging distance. He isn't willing to incorporate electronics to an extent that would allow them to actually effect how he writes these songs at all. And he just throws a cool synth over stuff every once in a while. And I think that his approach of just letting the classics run could at least be forgivable if there was anything exceptional about the performances or songs or aesthetics on this album. But it really does just feel like he spent some time listening to some 70's folk-rock and soul records and he said "I just need to model my new record after *exactly* this". This is gonna sound mean, but I really think it's just a couple of steps above listening to a decent cover band in a bar. It's not even that this is unpleasant, it's just that it's *so* unoriginal, and *so* self-important, and *so* unexceptional in execution that, aside from a couple of fleeting moments of neat sounds, I don't get anything from the experience of this album at all. This doesn't offer me *anything* I can't get from it's influences, which I think marks a total failure for what I would loosely call a genre revival record. This is almost a challenge to my grading principles. Does a somewhat listenable album with a few, sporadic seconds of interesting music skirt by on a 2, even if it has nothing to offer me? I think I'm gonna come down and say that this is where I'm staking the flag (for now) on what the best 1 may look like. It's inoffensive because Paul Weller happened to be listening to decent records, but Wild Wood feels like a functionally empty experience.

As dull and uninspiring as a very weak cup of tea where the teabag has barely made contact with the water.

Man, I REALLY wanted to like this, but I just don't. It's so lifeless. It's got a few moments of interest, like the fuzzed out jam that closes Has My Fire Really Gone Out, but for the most part just languishes in old-guy soft-rock territory.

I am not a big fan of The Jam, The Style Council or The Weller. I wonder if there's a consistent reason for that? *think emoji*

Started off pretty strong, and even had me excited that I had stumbled onto something great. But then it just kinda fizzled along for the rest of the way. Not bad, but lacking something.

In the 286 entries we've had to date, I have never described an album as 'boring'. I think it's a disingenuous word; an album can be subjectively bad, or fail to leave an impression, but in this 'best of' list, the music usually never fails to provoke some kind of reaction.

On that note, this album is boring as shit!

Paul Weller had 16 songs, 53 minutes to put some emotion into his singing, but he squanders that opportunity at every turn. There's some cool stuff happening in the instrumentation, but it's not enough to save the record as it consistently takes a backseat to Paul's monotony. At least the two bite-sized instrumentals here actually let the band showcase their talent, but they're hilariously over about as soon as they start.

In my opinion, Solid Air by John Martyn sounds like everything they're trying to do here but with actual good execution.

Standouts: Instrumental - Pt. 1 • All The Pictures On The Wall • Instrumental - Pt. 2

Jeg hørte mye på både "Sunflower" og "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)" på et tidspunkt. De to låtene står seg dels fortsatt, men det er kanskje en grunn til at jeg aldri hørte noe særlig på resten av albumet. "Shadow of the Sun" funker også.

Mye av det låter veldig datert. Voldsomt 90s på vondt. Selv om "All The Pictures On The Wall" høres ut som en mindre kjent Clapton-låt fra 70-tallet.

Deler av plata er sånn holde kaffekoppen med to hender-aktig, men så er det når Weller skal tøffe seg med rocka partier det går galt. Det er litt 70s-partier, som på "5th Season", men også grungeaktig på "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?" Ja, kanskje Style Council og The Jam var peaken.

Men selv de holde kaffekoppen med to-henderaktige låtene er masete produsert. "Country" og "Foot of the Mountain" har en gitarproduksjon som gir meg gåsehud på feil måte. Mer som skraping på tavle. Låtene er generiske og bare surrer i bakgrunnen. Hadde vært perfekt på en kafé hvor man kan holde kaffekoppen med to hender, om ikke produksjonen hadde vært så masete.

Chris Stapleton but in the 90's

Well, er, I'm not crazy about this one either. Enough Britrock, I want Britpop! Wildwood was where all the annoying people in my high school went when they skipped class. No relation, I assume.

I actually have heard 'Has My Fire Really Gone Out' before (it's fine), and when looking it up I learned that this is the guy from "The Jam" and "The Style Council"! Two other artists I had never heard of, mind you, but which were on this list. List maker really loves Paul Weller. And I liked the Jam, but this album is making me question past-me. It's just so sleepy! Hardly wild at all!

Poikkeuksellisesti aika hyvä ysärilevy!

I'm sort of confused about this album. It is horribly generic but the musicianship isn't bad. I feel like if you went to some random small town festival in the summer, this is the kind of musician who would be set up between the tent selling local honey on one side and a little old lady selling her crocheted crafts on the other. Kids run around with snow cones. The locals eat (surprisingly good) food from local vendors. All the while Paul Weller is playing a solo gig with $40k worth of gear and nobody is really paying attention. He's not bad, probably a much better musician than he gets credit for, but he's just the local guy that didn't ever make anything good enough to gain much recognition outside his small town.
Maybe that's unfair - I have only ever heard a few other things he's done but I don't remember them at all. I think there was probably a better choice than this album for this list. Especially for the time this was released - there were so many things happening that were so much more interesting than this. 2.5/5

album de rock uns 15 anos atrasado. seria um ABALO nos anos setenta, nos noventa não dá pra ligar muito. bem qualquer coisa.

It's fine, but it ain't The Jam. It's aging rocker music.