Wild Wood Paul Weller

AllMusic Rating

User Rating (0)

Your Rating

STREAM OR BUY:

Release Date

1993

Duration

54:04

Genre

Pop/Rock

Styles

British Trad Rock, Contemporary Pop/Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock

Recording Date

April, 1993 - May, 1993

Recording Location

Manor Studios, Oxfordshire, England

The Manor, Ozford, England

Set Your Streaming Service

Suggest Streaming Links

To Set Your Preferred Streaming Service, Log In to Your AllMusic Account

To Submit Streaming Links, Log In to Your AllMusic Account

Don't have an Account?

Discography Timeline

See Full Discography

Paul Weller (1992)

Wild Wood (1993)

Live Wood (1994)

Stanley Road (1995)

Heavy Soul (1997)

Heliocentric (2000)

Days of Speed (2001)

Illumination (2002)

Under the Influence (2003)

Studio 150 (2004)

As Is Now (2005)

Catch-Flame! Live at the Alexandra Palace (2006)

22 Dreams (2008)

Wake Up the Nation (2010)

Find the Torch Burn, the Plans: Live at the Royal Albert Hall

Find the Torch Burn, the Plans: Live at the Royal Alber… (2010)

Sonik Kicks (2012)

Saturn's Pattern (2015)

Jawbone [Music from the Film] (2017)

A Kind Revolution (2017)

True Meanings (2018)

On Sunset (2020)

Fat Pop, Vol.1 (2021)

An Orchestrated Songbook (2021)

66 (2024)

Find El Dorado (2025)

Wild Wood Review by AllMusic

Wild Wood Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Paul Weller deservedly regained his status as the Modfather with his second solo album, Wild Wood. Actually, the album is only tangentially related to mod, since Weller picks up on the classicism of his debut, adding heavy elements of pastoral British folk and Traffic-styled trippiness. Add to that a yearning introspection and a clean production that nevertheless feels a little rustic, even homemade, and the result is his first true masterwork since ending the Jam. The great irony of the record is that many of the songs -- "Has My Fire Really Gone Out?," "Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)" -- question his motivation and, as is apparent in his spirited performances, he reawakened his music by writing these searching songs. Though this isn't as adventurous as the Style Council, it succeeds on its own terms, and winds up being a great testament from an artist entering middle age. And, it helped kick off the trad rock that dominated British music during the '90s.

Wild Wood User Reviews

To Write a User Review, Log In to Your AllMusic Account Log In Don't Have an Account?

reymonmvc toledo January 12, 2016

Good album, but you have to know what to expect from it. There are some virtues this album takes to their perfection. But other desirable elements simply doesn't exist in this music.

The high points of the album are the execution of the music, the construction of the songs, the correct implementation of the arrangements. On the other hand, you're not gonna find here any kind of originality, it's completely conventional rock; neither mind-blowing melodies or riffs. Some of them are better than others but they never are so outstanding to be an absolute rock classic. But all of them, not being outstanding, are accurate: all of them are enjoyable, none of them are out of place, which contributes to build a really consistent album.

But hey, we don't need every album to be a landmark and break the convention, sometimes an artist does a good performance of something that was already invented but it still adds value to the world of music.

Another good point of this album is that it sounds very mature. It doesn't appeal to youth feelings so I think that it will probably grow with age (now I'm 23).

So, a mature, very consistent and definitely good album.

Was this review helpful?

Report Inappropriate

Ivan Keuller May 4, 2024

Now firmly entrenched in classic rock territory, Paul deploys on Wild Wood tasty acoustic arrangements to his best solo compositions to date: not only the splendidly delicate "Wild Wood" and "Country", but also the groovy mid-tempo "All The Pictures On The Wall", "5th Season" and "Shadow Of The Sun".

There's nothing revolutionary about "Wild Wood" (that's certainly not its purpose), but the embarrassing references have disappeared. A very well-crafted and rewarding album.

Was this review helpful?

Report Inappropriate

Scott Jones August 25, 2025

Not breaking any new ground, but the songs and playing are excellent. I would have preferred a more organic band sound - e.g., less mellotron, and fewer instances of Weller doing his own backing vocals on overdubs. It's a bit overproduced. Nevertheless, "Shadow of the Sun" has long been one of my favorites. "Wild Wood" definitely sounds like a Nick Drake tune. B-side "Ends of the Earth" is better than the instrumentals, should have made it onto the album.

Was this review helpful?

Report Inappropriate

DUB Banana November 15, 2024

Paul had his 15 minutes of fame with his previous band and somehow parlayed that into a solo career. The album is unique in its determination to remain uninspired, thus successfully confining Weller’s career to the UK.

Was this review helpful?

Report Inappropriate

Wild Wood Track List

Sunflower

Brendan Lynch / Paul Weller / Steve White

Paul Weller