Paul Weller - Find El Dorado - 2 x Vinyl LPs

2025

Paul Weller is a great songwriter. When you are a songwriter, the writing royalties can be the most lucrative part of the business, so when a talented and successful songwriter such as Weller voluntarily gives up that opportunity for royalties, you know that he really loves the songs.

Weller is 18 albums into his solo career, and he can guarantee a significant number of sales in the UK for all his new work. He shares a distinction in the UK which only Lennon and McCartney can match: a number one album in five consecutive decades. Each one of those albums is someone’s favourite, passionately defended on the message boards, fan sites and podcasts devoted to his works, even when the consensus doesn’t list them at the top. He has also always been savvy about the business side of making music, earning enough money so that he doesn’t need to indulge in activities that he feels are not artistically justified, whilst ensuring he has a comfortable life for him and his family. His choice to make his second covers album is a statement, and the choices and intent are clearly important to him. But that seems to be the mood of Weller now. This year he curated a wonderful selection of his most cherished soul music. He consented, for the first time, to give his side of, and bless others to give theirs, various stories in the form of an authorized oral biography. He has rejoined a record label where he enjoyed some of his greatest creative successes. He may have many years of music ahead of him, but he wants to get some things on the record, just in case. 

Find El Dorado is primarily an exquisite chamber piece, recorded with Weller’s current regular band. But there are also marvellous new arrangements from top new talent, and partnerships with friends or fellow travellers like Robert Plant and Noel Gallagher. One advantage of the covers album is that it may be possible to convince friends who have a shared passion for a piece to participate. 

Weller inhabits these songs and gives himself over to them, with a remarkable lack of ego for someone who has been a rock star for 80% of his life. He treats the songs with reverence, allowing the songs to lead, but also allowing any partners, from denizens of the the biggest bands in the world or kora maestro Sekou Keita to stamp themselves on the interpretation. They love the songs too. People who appreciate music will often not just take the song to heart, but register it as a gift from the person that brought it to them. Weller loves his music in this way; these songs were not brought to him by an algorithm but by friends, and in many cases he can name the friend. He is marking the friendship and the music.

The choices are obviously personal. Some, it would seem, will have challenged his business team to find someone to pay Mechanical Fees to, but the choices are not deliberately obscurantist. The Bee Gees probably do not need any more money, or indeed more covers of “I Started A Joke,” but Weller loves the song, so he gives it a bravura reading. Weller was never going to embark on this exercise without more references to The Kinks, although Ray Davies is probably already aware of the debt that Weller feels he owes him. However, the title of the album is inspired by the song from Eamon Friel, who is much less well-known. Weller has taken time with that family to understand the song better. The estate of Hamish Imlach will probably very much appreciate the sound of Weller and Plant trading phrases on Imlach’s “Clive’s Song”, but they will also acknowledge the opportunity to share in the success of a (likely) top 10 album. Imlach was a great musician but less-than-great businessman. 

There are messages in every choice. More than one song mentions the area of Soho, a bohemian zone of music, eating, and drinking (along with vice), where the nightlife is prized by a certain group of people, like aspirant or aging rock stars. The kind of place where Hamish Imlach made his name. Two artists appear on both Weller’s soul selection and here. Richie Havens needs little introduction. However, PP Arnold is less well-known, particularly in the US. That is because she is something unusual: an American who made her name in UK, initially as a fixture of the Swinging Sixties. In the course of a 60-year career, she has made some exceptional records, but has also had the misfortune of being mistreated by the business many times. By acknowledging her work twice this year, he is reminding us of her in a particular way.

The 15 pieces are each given space, and adornments, when present, are all necessary. Hannal Peel, an exceptional orchestrator and composer, illuminates some of the pieces with thoughtful, necessary string arrangements. A beautiful, telling, piece of work and part of an important story.

Mike Tobyn

https://www.covermesongs.com/2025/07/review-paul-wellers-find-el-dorado.html