Many of you who have read some of my reviews will know that I am a huge Paul Weller fan, and even more so when he plays live, as this is when he is truly at his magnificent best. I hate the term “The Modfather” which seems to have been tagged onto him, as this gives the idea that he is only on the scene to nuture others, which is certainly not the case, as I think after a few decades on the music scene he is still finding new ways to evolve as an artist. This album was eagerly anticipated by me, as it is a compilation of some of his most popular tracks but played live on an acoustic tour, which as I have mentioned is where he really shines for me, although this time he decided not to have the band he normally has and perform his music stripped back to the bone with just him and a guitar. The album is jam packed with quality, 18 tracks in all from a selection of his releases over the years, and bravely not all of them are the ones that would immediately spring to people’s minds.

One of my all time favourite Weller tracks from my favourite album ‘Stanley Road’ is ‘Out Of The Sinking’, and it is a real uplifting track normally, so as expected this version lacks the bite that the original has, but that in no way detracts from the listening experience. Many of you will know this track as it was used as the theme tune for Sky Sports a few years ago.

The song which beat ‘English Rose’, and the song I walked down the aisle to get married to is the undisputable best Weller song ever…….’You Do Something To Me’. It evokes so much emotion, that I have tears in my eyes listening to it, even though it is something I do regularly. I blame the baby hormones!! Lyrically, I cannot think of a song which even comes close to this for me, and having written this for his ex wife, it is so difficult to see why they are no longer together when their feelings were this strong. I could not even give you my favourite line from this song, because I could not pick one.

The album he released in 2000 was one that took me a while to connect with, but from the outset ‘Science’ jumped out as a standout track. The chorus is extremely catchy and it has a jazzy feel to it, whereas ‘Back In The Fire’ from probably my least played album ‘Heliocentric’ is back to the mellow understated mood we saw at the start of the album. This is probably my least favourite track on the set list.

‘Loveless’ was from the ‘Heliocentric’ album, and is a really slow track which has a haunting quality about it. To the casual Weller listener, I am not sure this will appeal, because it is up against some stiff competition, but it adds to the balance of decades and styles that are included in this album, and he carries on with the same album, and this time the track is the strangely titled ‘There’s No Drinking After You’re Dead’, and as the words suggest, it is a pretty somber affair.