Paul Weller

Wake Up the Nation Paul Weller

oNominated for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize.

oReflecting the urgency and claustrophobia of city life, the record dispensed with the acoustic, folky and pastoral influences of Weller's recent work and introduced more jagged rock styles with angry, urban and metallic influences - Diamond Dogs, Low-period Bowie riffs.

oVery experimental, mostly short songs but with a sense of adventure - often packing a suite's worth of twists into one song - the updated New Orleans shuffle meets bonkers music hall of Many of the left turns arrive via the arrangements - witness the careening chaos after the chorus of Grasp & Still Connect, or the mutating psychedelia of Andromeda

oAmongst the experimentation though, Jam fans will love the tightly wound collaboration with Bruce Foxton on Fast Car/Slow Traffic, the dense dangerous heartbeat and militaristic sound collage of 7&3 Is the Strikers Name (featuring My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields).

oStyle Council fans will appreciate the jazz waltz of In Amsterdam or No Tears to Cry - a sublime Walker Brothers style ballad, as well as Aim High, his finest blue-eyed soul ballad in ages.