Saturns Pattern continues the purple patch Weller hit in 2008 with 22 Dreams, when he suddenly began to experiment with new ways of writing and recording. Weller is a magpie in terms of where he finds inspiration. Long Time chugs along menacingly like the Stooges’ I Wanna Be Your Dog, while Going My Way’s simple refrain veers into a Todd Rundgren-meets-the Beach Boys stomp. His voice is Bowie-esque on Pick It Up, then like a megaphoned Don Van Vliet on White Sky. But Weller’s renaissance has not come at the expense of his musical identity. The sunshine-pop haze of Phoenix is from the Tame Impala playbook, but you could imagine Style Council-era Weller singing it. I’m Where I Should Be has a Damon Albarn-ish melancholy, but it’s a clenched suburban vignette that the Jam might have recorded. “Still got a way to go,” Weller sings on the coda of closing track These City Streets – a positive note that suggests there’s plenty more where this came from.
