New Release of the Week: Various - Paul Weller Presents That Sweet Sweet Music

This 2-LP showcases 26 tracks that are some of Paul Weller’s favourite soul records, most of which he has on vinyl in his own collection.

He can still recall paying £70 for his copy of Jon Lucien’s 1971 ‘Search For The Inner Self’ 7” at a record shop in Leicester in the ‘90s.

Some of these tracks are soul classics like James Carr’s 1966 ‘Pouring Water On A Drowning Man’ and Brother to Brother’s brilliant take on Gil Scott Heron and Brian Jackson’s ‘The Bottle’ from 1975.

Others are deliciously obscure wonderous gems like the A-side of Blackrock’s sole 1971 single ‘Blackrock “Yeah, Yeah”’, ‘Life Walked Out’ from the same year by The Mist or Syl Johnson’s ‘Black Balloons’ taken from his 1970 album “Is It Because I’m Black?”.

The album comes with notes by the man himself, giving further insight into his selections.

Sound Pick: My Morning Jacket - Is

For more than 25 years, My Morning Jacket have achieved an incredibly rare feat in rock and roll, upholding a long-established cultural legacy while sustaining the curiosity and creative hunger of their earliest days.

From their beautiful, mysterious debut album - 1999’s ‘At Dawn’ - onwards, the band has established itself as one of the finest American rock acts of its generation, drawing on everything from folk, country, Americana and searing Southern Rock, to electronica.

For their 10th studio album, the band teamed up with Grammy Award-winning producer Brendan O’Brien (Springsteen, Pearl Jam) for what may be their most masterfully realized work yet, once again expanding the limits of their sound while elevating their artistry to unprecedented heights.