Paul Weller

From the Source

At the time of Heliocentric's release, rumours were rife that this would be Paul Weller's last studio album.

Weller recruited musical arranger and multi-instrumentalist Robert Kirby who had collaborated with one of his heroes, Nick Drake, to work on the album.

Kirby's string arrangements complemented Weller's songs perfectly. Heliocentric mixes psychedelia with ballads with full-on rock-out numbers.

Helicoentric is more laid-back and introspective and has more wamth and personality than its predecessor Heavy Soul.

The orchestration works well with Weller's personal songs (of which there are quite a few). Two of these were singles: the acoustic 'Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea', a love song to his eldest daughter Leah, and 'He's The Keeper', about The Small Faces' Ronnie Lane.

Other tracks addressing Weller's personal thoughts were 'With Time And Temperance', a reflective song about his marriage break-up, and 'Back In The Fire', widely considered as an attack on journalists - Weller is famous in the music business for his dislike of music critics.

Heliocentric is definitely a grower: repeated listens reveal the layers and nuances of the record that are easy to miss at first.