Music is made to elicit emotions or even memories when it’s listened to. Sometimes it’s meant to make you feel that way and sometimes it’s meaning was meant to be something entirely different. When I listened to ‘Sonik Kicks’ by Paul Weller I was picturing this whole album being a soundtrack for some independent movie about the main character going on some wild self-discovering journey. Not only did ‘Sonik Kicks’ remind me of a soundtrack but it plays like a soundtrack that’s composed of different bands playing different styles of music and songs for the soundtrack. “When Your Gardens Overgrown” is a rock and roll song with it’s fast guitar riffs, the quick gritty vocals, and the quick banging of the drums but the opening track “Green” is a techno-rave style song with it’s synthesizers, the electronic sounds, and the repetitive beats.
This is an album that truly surprised me while I was listening to it. I’ve heard groups play different songs on the same CD, in fact I prefer it that way, but this is a rare occasion where the songs sound so different from each other. The sounds of these songs are so different from each other that it almost sounds as if each of the songs where taken one by one from different albums instead of just being one album. It’s because of this mixture that I really enjoyed ‘Sonik Kicks’. Well, it was that and also because the songs are just a lot of fun to listen to.
Even though the songs are different from the last one that played there is a common thread being put into them all, energy. Paul Weller made these songs sound like he was having a lot of fun while singing them and wants the listener to have just as much fun listening to them. I was enjoying listening to the story that Paul Weller told to me as I listened to his songs, which might be one of the reasons why I felt like this was a soundtrack because of the stories the songs seemed to tell. His vocals are strong with each song where the lyrics are understood, even when they are being done in that electronic sound. It was nice and amazing to hear the tempo go from a new wave techno with “Sleep of the Serene” to an almost folky rhythm with “By the Waters”. Paul Weller has a talent to be able to create such a difference in the sounds of his songs with the ability to make each of them sound not only good but like that was the only style of song he had ever played. I don’t often use these kinds of phrases but this is one time that it actually fits, ‘Sonik Kicks’ is a lot of kicks to listen to.