Paul Weller 'Broken Stones'

Chart Peak: 20

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Astonishingly, it is now 18 years since the teenage Paul Weller first charted with The Jam... 'Broken Stones', a Top 20 hit in September 1995, continued his run of solo successes.

The sleeve note glosses over this a little, but 1995 was the year that saw him score his first solo Top 10 hits with 'The Changingman' and 'You Do Something To Me', neither of which made it to a Now album. So it's left instead for this smaller hit to represent a successful year in the series. I don't mind though, as this is a track I've always rather liked but it seemed a little overshadowed by some of the bigger hits.

Since his revival around this time was widely attributed to the restoration of his rock sound as well as the patronage of younger stars, it's interesting to note that this track features no guitars at all, unless you count Mark Nelson's prominent bassline. Steve Cradock of Ocean Colour Scene is shown miming a guitar part in the video, but he's not on the record so I suppose the director wanted to keep him busy. Conversely, somebody who does appear on there is Mick Talbot (on Fender Rhodes electric piano, alongside the subtly different sound of Weller's Wurlitzer) and with longstanding drummer Steve White tapping away in the background this is almost a Style Council reunion track, not exactly a fashionable thing to suggest. The track shimmers in and out on keyboards and cymbals (it almost fades in, in fact) and it's punctated by the heat-haze of an accordian solo; offset by the momentum of the strong rhythm section it lends the whole thing a relaxed late-summer ambience that makes it seem a very wise decision to release this single in September.

The one part that adds some grit (er, no pun intended) is the singing. It's a soul-searching sort of lyric, I suppose, and it's delivered with enough gruffness to keep this out of the middle of the road. And yet it also avoids sounding too whiny: somehow the vibe comes through that things are going to work out alright in the end. Even if you're on an endless spiritual quest it's a good thing to know that you have a soul, perhaps? Somehow I can even forgive that much-derided opening rhyme "Like pebbles on a beach/ Kicked around, displaced by feet" because it seems to come from the right place. Maybe it helps that I'm writing this at the right time of year (and not in the dead of winter when Now 32 came out) but I'm not sure this could ever be any better.

Also appearing on: Now 25, 33, 34, 70
Available on: Modern Classics - The Greatest Hits