E-Mail This Article to a Friend All Jammed up Paul Weller comes to terms with his iconic past BY SCOTT FRAMPTON
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Paul Weller — one-time leader of the Jam, and a veritable treasure in his native Great Britain — provides a convincing argument that icons are best left to art and religion. "I don’t ever get hung up on being an icon or whatever people see," he says after killing the volume on the Coltrane blasting in his LA hotel room. "That’s with them, really. I’m too busy getting on with what I got to do in life."

Weller’s right. His icon status isn’t his problem; it’s mine. I’ll never shake what he represented with the Jam — the beautifully angry young man. The self-possessed certainty that fueled the Jam also served him when he made abrupt career turns, first with the Continental soul of Style Council, then with mercurial solo albums like his new As Is Now, a V2 import set for US release from Yep Roc on October 11. The new disc is mature, passionate rock played by a band who contain their genre wanderlust by sticking to what they do well. Of course, any new Weller release is bound to get propped up by scrapbook memories. It’s not so much the artist gets old as that you do. Training a critical eye on any performer who was it for you at a formative period in your life also means re-evaluating large chunks of your life. Which is why, even though I didn’t want to like the new Weller disc, I knew I probably would.

Weller’s weathered bark on "Come On/Let’s Go" might put you in mind of his "voice of a generation" tracks like "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight," but the open-ended riff sounds more like the Undertones, and so does the fat, melodic bass line that bullies it into the background. Other tracks go their own way: "The Start of Forever" and "I Want To Make It Alright" are romantic pastorals; "Savages" swaths its gimlet eyes in gauzy acoustic strum; "Bring Back the Funk" gamely steps to contemporary R&B armed with a slinky guitar lead and an artfully open hi-hat. And the ’70s-soul-guitar lead of "Blink and You Might Miss It" is hoisted by a muscular rhythm section.

So, yes, I like it. Weller does too; the CD’s artistic successes have added a sanguine note to his uncompromising nature. "From the time I was a kid — literally from 12, 13 — all I dreamt and thought about was music, being in a band one day and making records. And sometimes when you’re granted your wish in life, you grab it and run with it. After all these years, I still have a new record coming out and it sounds fresh, and you have to be grateful for some things in life."

In fact, the new disc has him feeling so good about his music, he’ll be playing Jam songs live on the US tour that hits Avalon this Sunday. "If I didn’t have any new songs, if the band wasn’t still relevant in our minds, and we were just going out and playing the old songs, that’s a different thing, then it’s cabaret. But [playing] live for us has been great. So I look forward to playing the old songs now, because I know around the corner is another new song that we’re going to like just as much. And when we play an old Jam song like ‘Town Called Malice,’ there’s such a reaction, you can’t help but be swept along with it."

Perhaps because the Jam were so central to a particular period in British music, it’s taken Weller a long time to come to terms with his legacy. He admits, "I know people of a certain age will associate the Jam songs with a certain time of their life. But for me, I can also now see them as a body of work."

Paul Weller + Ian Moore | Avalon, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | Sept 25 | 617.228.6000