The LP is a tribute to the music that’s guided him through his life and career
Paul Weller is set to make his return on 25 July with the highly anticipated new album Find El Dorado – a bold and personal collection of reinterpretations that shine new light on some of the songs that have shaped him.
Ahead of the album’s release, Weller’s striking version of the Bee Gees’ haunting classic I Started A Joke. First released as a single in 1968 (though not in the UK), Weller didn’t actually hear the Bee Gees’ version until after he had already recorded several albums of his own. Now, it becomes a centrepiece of Find El Dorado – a song he not only admires, but wishes he had written himself.
“It’s one of those tracks that almost makes you re-think your own writing,” Weller says. “It reinforces the value of a great melody. And perhaps with someone like Robin Gibb, who didn’t play any instruments, that’s doubly important. Because that – along with the words you’ve written for it – is all you can really communicate to the musicians and the arranger. So everything is hanging off that.”
Listen below:
Soundtrack Of My Life
Find El Dorado isn’t just a covers album – it’s a tribute to the music that’s guided Weller through his life and career. Revisiting songs that have long lived in the corners of his memory, he infuses each one with fresh meaning, reverence, and emotional insight.
Find El Dorado Tracklisting
(artists that originally recorded them in brackets)
Handouts in the Rain (Richie Havens)
Small Town Talk (Bobby Charles)
El Dorado (Eamon Friel)
White Line Fever (The Flying Burrito Brothers)
One Last Cold Kiss (Christy Moore)
When you are a King (White Plains)
Pinball (Brian Protheroe)
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire (Willie Griffin)
I Started a Joke (Bee Gees)
Never the Same (Lal and Mike Waterson)
Lawdy Rolla (The Guerrillas)
Nobody’s Fool (The Kinks)
Journey (Duncan Browne)
Daltry Street (Jake Fletcher / PP Arnold)
Clive’s Song (Hamish Imlach)
Pre-order Find El Dorado here
Featured picture credit: Dean Chalkley
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