Paul Weller has collaborated with Noel Gallagher on a track for his new album ‘True Meanings’.
The British rock icon has announced that he is releasing his 26th studio LP – the 14th of his solo career – on September 14 on Parlophone Records
In May 2018, Weller turned 60 and reaching that landmark age has influenced the songs on the LP, whilst it also features the most collaborations he has ever committed to record.
Weller and his friend, former Oasis star Noel, have teamed up for a song, which is the latest in a long line of joint songwriting efforts by the pair.
Previous collaborations including ‘Echoes Round the Sun’ on Weller’s 2008 LP ’22 Dreams’ and ‘Birth of an Accidental Hipster’, which they co-wrote for The Monkees’ 2016 album ‘Good Times!’
Weller also featured on Noel’s latest solo album, ‘Who Built the Moon?, playing the organ on ‘Holy Mountain’.
Other guest appearances on ‘True Meanings’ come from Rod Argent of the Zombies playing Hammond organ on ‘The Soul Searchers’ and piano and Mellotron on ‘White Horses’; folk legends Martin Carthy and Danny Thompson adding picked guitar and double bass respectively to ‘Come Along’; Little Barrie taking lead guitar on ‘Old Castles’; Lucy Rose singing back-up vocals on ‘Books’; and ‘Movin On’ is the result of a "scratchy demo" on Paul’s phone that was sent to Tom Doyle of the White Label project.
The record also surprisingly contains four songs which have lyrics penned by other writers to Weller’s melodies and music.
Connor O’Brien from Villagers came up with the words to opener ‘The Soul Searchers’, while ‘Bowie’, ‘Wishing Well’ and the closing ‘White Horses’ are all the lyrical work of Erland Cooper from Erland & The Carnival.
The LP was recorded in just over three weeks at Paul’s own Black Barn Studio with all the collaborators coming to him for their respective sessions.
‘True Meanings’ contains much lavish orchestration and was produced by Weller.
Speaking about the album previously, ‘The Modfather’ said: "It’s got an acoustic guitar on it but if that makes it a folk album, I really don’t know. It’s just about songs, voice and guitar essentially, and there are some tracks that have been orchestrated, strings and brass."
‘True Meanings’ tracklisting:
1. The Soul Searchers
2. Glide
3. Mayfly
4. Gravity
5. Old Castles
6. What Would He Say?
7. Aspects
8. Bowie
9. Wishing Well
10. Come Along
11. Books
12. Movin On
13. May Love Travel With You
14. White Horses