Product Description

Named after a street in Weller's home-town of Woking in Surrey, this album was greeted with universal approval by critics and fans. The brilliant Peter Blake collage throughout the package portrays much greater nostalgia than is contained in the lyrics. The family snapshots and the Green Line picture serve only to fool the listener. The title track is clearly about the terraced houses that have now given way to 90s starter apartments, but the more personal content of tracks such as 'You Do Something To Me' is where Weller truly bareshis soul. It would strongly appear that before recording this album, Weller listened to many Traffic albums.

Track Listing

1. The Changingman
2. Porcelain Gods
3. I Walk On Gilded Splinters / Porcelain Gods (Part Two)
4. You Do Something To Me
5. Woodcutter's Son
6. Time Passes / Steam
7. Stanley Road
8. Broken Stones
9. Out Of The Sinking
10. Pink On White Walls
11. Whirlpools' End
12. Wings Of Speed

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1661 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 52 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This album has class and it sees Paul Weller once again firmly in control of every aspect: he wrote all the songs bar a cover of Dr. John's "I Walk on Gilded Splinters"; he co-produced it and, apart from his earthy vocals, he plays guitar, piano, organ and percussion. All the tracks are special, but it's the three hits--"Changingman", "Broken Stones" and the truly wonderful "You Do Something To Me"--that really stand out, as does "Porcelain Gods", which has something of the old Style Council about it. Soulful, the style is underlined by Carleen Anderson's rich backing vocals on five of the tracks. Weller is also joined by some of his other musical chums: Noel Gallagher, Steve Craddock and Steve Winwood. --Carina Trimingham

Customer Reviews

Perfect - and he knows it!
Weller fans will love this, but then again, so will almost everyone!

I'm quite hard to please, but I have to say that in a career spanning over 30 years, there's been very little of Weller's work that I've disliked. Admittedly, as a 15 year-old lad, I was sad when The Jam dissolved, but later in life I realised the importance of that move. Likewise, I lost the plot a bit when TSC became completely obsessed with themselves, but apart from that, there have been very few "speed wobbles".

So for me, the stand-out tracks are "broken stones", "thechangingman" and "time passes"....but what an awesome album! Choose your own favourites. Who remembers when he did "The White Room" with Noel Gallagher?

Hands up who wants to be Paolo Hewitt?.....that's a "no" then?...

Weller's creative peak
Although Paul Weller has produced some fine albums since "Stanley Road", this was the one where it all really came together and he was truly launched back into the mainstream, to become the darling of the festival generation, having been the "spokesman" for the previous one.

This is an upbeat album, loosely held together by influences of Weller's upbringing in Woking, Surrey in the late 60s/early 70s, which was far more rural than one might imagine. He speaks of his family's road, "Stanley Road" going on and on (in fact it is not that long at all) and thus reflects our habit of seeing things from childhood as being far bigger in size than they actually were. The driving piano of this track wonderfully captures this feel in music, as in deed, it meanders and rolls on and on. There is a follow on fropm "Wild Wood's" bucolic flavour with cuts like "Woodcutter's Son", "Whirlpool's End" and "Broken Stones", where once again the influence of late 60s Traffic is clear.

"Changing Man" is a great, barnstorming opener and the verve and punch is continued through "Walk On Gilded Splinters" with its slow powerful groove and "Porcelain Gods" wit its cynical lyric. "You Do Something To Me" soon became the favourite of loved-up couples at gigs (witness the Hyde Park concert DVD) and "Out Of The Sinking" another solid piece of 90s rock. Drums, searing choppy guitar, keyboards and piano are to the fore on this almost perfectly blended album. The voice is at its peak and the lyrics are both poetic at times and hard-hitting. "Stanley Road" is as close to a perfect album as you will get. However, its very perfection renders it somewhat less interesting and worthy of exploration than his other albums, if that makes sense. Like "Ziggy Stardust", "Born To Run" and "Graceland" it suffers from the "I'm too familiar with it" syndrome and thus, I often find myself listening to "Heliocentric" or "Illumination" these days, despite the fact that they are inferior albums (comparatively). Does that make sense ? I Hope so.

Awesome!!!
This Album is Brillant From Start to Finish. You Do Something To Me Is 1 Of The Greatest Songs Ever Written. Wings Of Speed Is In My Top 5 All Time Greatest Songs. Stanley Road Should Be In Everyones Cd Collection And In Every List Done By Music Magazines Of The Top 100 Albums You Must Own, Stanley Road Should Be In The Top 5.

Just Buy It, It's A Masterpiece, Weller Is A LEGEND.