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'22 Dreams' Blurs Into One Great One

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 24, 2008

"22 Dreams" plays more like one long one, winding and twisting, shifting from sharp focus to artful blurring, skirting logic to create a mood that's as undeniable as it is hard to nail down.

It's irrefutable proof of the musical miles Weller has traveled, from the sharp, declamatory pop of The Jam styles he employs on his solo albums.

But "22 Dreams" also displays how rooted Weller remains - like so much of his work, many of these songs are not so far removed from their soul music origins, the music that coursed through The Jam - recall the revved-up Larry Williams and Martha Reeves covers - and even more explicitly through Style Council.

"22 Dreams" is ambitious - an hour-plus in length, full of shocking stylistic shifts, instrumentals and even a spoken word piece. But sprawling it's not. It feels as ruthlessly honed as a 21/2-minute single. Go looking for fat and you'll come up short.

There are echoes of Traffic and of Procol Harum, bands that planted roots in numerous styles to create something both familiar and new, like a dream.

The disc begins with the most unusual track, "Light Nights," with open-tuned guitar, violin and cello creating an English chamber folk sound that wouldn't be out of place on a Jethro Tull record (quite possibly fighting words for Weller).

The title track moves swiftly back to familiar ground, with brisk R&B chords supporting the album's most basic rocker.

From there, the album truly does take on a dreamlike quality, with instrumental passages linking songs in ways that make more sense the less you think about them.

Even when you suspect Weller might coast on cliche, he ascends with a dynamic performance, as on "Why Walk When You Can Run."

Flashes of his past are here - imagine Style Council having a go at "Cold Moments" or The Jam tearing through the title track. But "22 Dreams" doesn't look back so much as it anticipates a new dawn.

Download this: "Echoes Round the Sun"

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