Paul Weller - Hit Parade

Weller has released a four CD box set with all 67 of his singles with The Jam, The Style Council and as a solo artist. For everyone's Christmas present list there's this 23 hit single version, which evenly represents each period of Weller's career. Remarkably, it is the first one to do so.

This is what a Best Of is all about - a collection that makes you exclaim "blimey", in case you realise you've forgotten what incredible tunes the man has churned out over the years.

All throughout the style changes - the punk mod-revivalists The Jam, the quintessentially eighties The Style Council, to the comfortable middle-aged mellowness of his solo work, the songwriting never faltered.

From listening to The Jam again, it's clear that Weller is an artist that absorbs his influences, proudly displays them, and in most cases, improves on them. All classics present and correct here - including 'Start!', 'Eton Rifles' and 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight'.