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Rating: The 'dinosaurs' of music are slowly collapsing to the ground! They do so periodically with every Greatest Hits, with each new album that offers the typical sound that made them incredibly famous, with their big face, deluding itself to resist time, proudly displayed on the cover. Luckily for us, this doesn’t happen to everyone. An artist who escapes this sad musical reality is Sir Paul Weller. Prominent at the end of the '70s with the mod movement and the Jam, capable of re-emerging splendidly in the eighties with the Style Council, and still appreciated today as a solo artist, what Weller has always done is refuse to rest on uncontested fame, reintroducing himself each time with new ideas and his unmistakable style. In 'Illumination', the seventh effort if we also consider the compilation ‘Modern Classics', much of the acoustic atmosphere from the latest 'Days Of Speed' can still be felt, an album that gathered the artist’s greatest hits performed live. There's the usual northern soul 'Going Places' and 'Standing Out In The Universe', precious acoustic ballads 'Leafy Mysterie' and 'Now The Night Is Here', and beautiful more intimate pauses like 'Who Brings Joy'. Confirming the high quality of the work, we find famous mod-father disciples on the album—Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer play on 'One X One', Kelly Jones sings alongside Weller in the robust 'Call Me No.5', which fits the Stereophonics' front-man like a glove, while Steve Cradock, the guitarist of Ocean Colour Scene, enriches the album with his valuable collaboration. Without mega-productions but full of healthy musical passion, here is a work delivered that confirms, if ever there was doubt, that not every music 'dinosaur' is on the path to extinction.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 A Bullet for Everyone (04:10)
Everybody doing it
Doing it real good
Everybody knowing it
Like they know they should
Shiny sabres rattling
Long into the night
And everybody saying it
Saying what they like
There are words there to inspire you
There are words there to be heard
Maybe none of them will fire you
But none the less they will make you listen by force.
Everybody shouting it
From every place on high
Everybody loving it
Loving what they find
There's blood upon each handshake
Lies upon each word
And everybody killing it
Killing off what's good
There are holes in the divisions
Between the haves and who have nots
There's a bomb for every city
Now they don't know where to stop
And they say there's no provisions
There's not enough to go round
But when it comes to the gun there's a bullet for everyone
When it comes to the gun there's a bullet for everyone
Everybody wanting it
Wanting it to stop
The chaos and destruction
The bloodshed on the rocks
The pain and deprivation
The losses and the grief
The tired, worn out promises
Of the politicians' brief
There are holes in the divisions
Between the haves and who have nots
There's a bomb for every city
Now they don't know how to stop
And they say there's no provisions
There's not enough to go round
But when it comes to the gun there's a bullet for everyone
When it comes to the gun there's a bullet for everyone
When it comes to the gun there's a bullet for everyone
03 Leafy Mysteries (03:06)
and these leafy mysteries
and the silence of the eve
and in the shady tree’s I swing
& in the dappled orchards heat
where I lie & wait
wait for the breeze
to carry me
to a place I can lose myself
no time just somewhere else
with a face I can recognise
-I forget sometimes
that’s always been here
And all these leafy mysteries
& the changing of the seas
& all the secrets of the tide
just open up the world I find-
so small to me
when there’s so much to see –
so much to be –
day up & the grasses hiss
get up! Like sweet lips they kiss
see now that you’re part of it
I forget sometimes
That’s always been here
And these leafy mysteries
Have always been & always will
& in the shady trees I swing
& in the dappled orchard’s heat
-where I lie & wait
wait for the breeze
to hunger me-
wait for the trees
to breathe in to me
04 It's Written in the Stars (03:10)
it’s written in the wind
that we’re two
carved out in the sand
that we’re real
it’s lit up in the stars
that we’re true
we’re destined in the sky
to be glad
we’re hopelessly informed
that we’re meant
we’re conscious of the fact
that we’re supposed
to be so sure
and we are
we’re driven by the
rain to act
we’re suspect to the laws
passed for real
when we’re the realest
thing we’ve seen
taken by the hand from above
I really do feel
we work for love
and it’s written in the stars
meant for us
soaked into the sand
made by time
taken by the hand from above
I really do feel
that we work for love
it’s written in the wind
that we’re two
carved out in the sand
that we’re real
it’s lit up in the stars
that we’re true
we’re destined in the sky
to be glad
13 Illumination (04:05)
I close my eyes - but sleep won't come
You're in my waking dreams
It's a feeling right inside of me
'til you're in my arms again
the prayer I ask - is where I'm going to
without your undying love
I'm as worthless as a cold, cold sun
that shines for no-one - at all
how many time - must I return
from distant oceans - just to learn
that with your song
illumination comes
I close my eyes
and I hear no-one
I'm in a moving film
it's balck and white
and beautiful
and it has no end to write...
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