Paul Weller has been in a relentlessly innovative purple patch since 2008’s 22 Dreams, which is still surprising given the workmanlike nature of his previous decade’s output. A Kind Revolution is less startling than its immediate predecessors, in part because it reins in the genre-hopping. Although some of the magic is lost in the process, it consequently comes across as a more cohesive album, one that’s suffused with warmth and optimism, giving equal weight to rock, soul and jazz. Long Long Road and She Moves With the Fayre, the latter featuring Robert Wyatt on trumpet, are especially pleasing.
