Product Description

3 CDs of B-sides and rarities from former Jam frontman and "Modfather" Paul Weller. Features an impressive collection of hard to find material including live versions, instrumentals, acoustic session tracks and the much sought after Portishead remix of 'Wild Wood'. The third CD, an album in its ownright entitled 'Button Downs', is a selection of covers which includes his version of the Beatles' 'Don't Let Me Down'.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Here's A New Thing
2. That Spiritual Feeling
3. Into Tomorrow
4. Arrival Time
5. Fly On The Wall
6. Always There To Fool You
7. All Year Round
8. Ends Of The Earth
9. This Is No Time
10. Another New Day
11. Foot Of The Mountain
12. Wild Wood
13. Kosmos

Disc 2:

1. The Loved
2. Steam
3. It's A New Day, Baby
4. A Year Late
5. Eye Of The Storm
6. Shoot The Dove
7. As You Lean Into The Light
8. So You Want To Be A Dancer
9. Everything Has A Price To Pay
10. Right Underneath It
11. Helioscentric
12. There Is No Drinking, After You're Dead
13. The Riverbank
14. Science - Paul Weller, The Psychonauts

Disc 3:

1. Feeling Alright
2. Ohio
3. Black Sheep Boy
4. Sexy Sadie
5. I Shall Be Released
6. I'd Rather Go Blind
7. My Whole World Is Falling Down
8. Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City
9. Waiting On An Angel
10. Bang-Bang
11. Instant Karma
12. Don't Let Me Down

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28526 in Music
• Released on: 2003-08-25
• Number of discs: 3
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 154 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A patchy collection, but somehow all the more interesting because of it, Fly On the Wall is almost exactingly thorough in correlating all of Paul Weller's solo career B-sides onto three CDs (a few live cuts are absent) and also serves as a worrying reminder of how much the music consumer--and more importantly the musician--may stand to lose if the single format ever becomes a thing of the past.

Sometimes unfairly maligned (and sometimes not) the B-side is the musician's opportunity for a little friendly informality or hopelessly misguided experimentation, perhaps even a chance to fulfil that long-cherished ambition to remix one's biggest hit in an acid-house style with Acker Bilk and a troupe of Senegalese drummers. Weller hasn't gone that far, but he's certainly game--Portishead's "pots and pans" drum sounds on "Wild Wood" now sound a little antiquated but it's a refreshing slant on one of his best songs while, less successfully, the Lynch Mob Bonus Beats remix of "Kosmos" is akin to being boxed around the ears by an army of amusement arcade machines. Fly on the Wall does contain an awful lot of instrumentals (much in the way of funky grooving, wah-wah-pedals and hysterical saxophonists but, alas, precious little in the way of pithy tunes), but these are counter-balanced by a generous portion of proper songs which may well have merited promotion to the status of album track. And never one to shirk from wearing his influences on his sleeve (and depending on your viewpoint, this is either Weller's strength or his Achilles heel), the third disc is given over to some entirely respectful and altogether more rockier cover versions of classics from Lennon, the Beatles, Sonny Bono, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin and Neil Young. There's something solid here for Weller fans of all persuasions. --Kevin Maidment

Customer Reviews

Little mixed bag...
Lets gets the flaws out of the way.
Jazz-funk is a much maligned form and when delivered by the likes of Lonnie Liston-Smith then fair enough. When done by Paul Weller aided by Brendan Lynch and Jacko Peake it can become tedious. And there are a few of those knocking around here that are slightly self-indulgent.

The rest is quite simply quality.
Tracks like "Fly On The Wall" and "It's A New Day Baby" bustle with energy and style.
The covers on here seem to work too, far better than on 2004's patchy covers album. Maybe it's because they are fresher and more random. Check Weller's beautiful cover of Ben Harper's "Waiting On An Angel."

An interesting collection on the whole.

Rare gems from Weller - Listen closely
The fly on the wall mini-box is a compilation b-sides and rare songs from Weller. It has some really satisfying moments, specially the live songs and covers were my favorites; but also some very good b-side recordings with a nice and warm feeling that could easily be included on a very good album.
The only thing I didn't enjoy much was the remixes and some of the instrumentals, but in a box like this there's always this element of unpredictability.
The set still has some nice gems (fly on the wall; a cover of Sexy Sadie & don't let me down ... and a lot more) ... listen to the third disc definitely worth getting a hold of, the best of the set!

Let the music play!

in defence of the Kosmos
I'll agree with the spirit of the reviews here, the set is a little patchyand indulgent. Weller has, quite frankly, been treading the same groundfor a little too long now. His (in my opinion best) work with The Jam grewas he grew in maturity and success and each album was an improvement onthe last in many ways. The Style Council experiment produced results thatwhilst not to my taste, did allow him to explore new ground that theframework of The Jam procluded.
Solo Weller has always been a mix of the two and somehow always ended upsounding rather a lot like Traffic and The Small Faces. These b sides dohave a range that the solo studio albums seem to miss a little. Wildwoodworked as an album but the other albums seem to be based around a singlesound or idea, this compilation for all it's flightiness and indulgencedoes avoid that. It's not an essential purchase by any means but it iscertainly a different Weller to that which has recorded solo for the lastdecade or so. If you've heard most of these tracks and want to collatethem then this is great, if you've heard some of them and have a few bobspare then you could do worse.
The mix of Kosmos is still one of my favourite tracks by anyone ever anddoesn't sound like an explosion in an amusement arcade as indicatedelswhere. It's a massive slice of orgasmic mixing at it's best, all 7minutes of it. Think cruising through 70's cop film San Francisco listningto an instrumental Theme From Shaft on serious acid and you've got theidea.