Description:

A career’s worth of Weller, spanning the long-serving bastion of Brit pop’s career from The Jam to the present day.

Which means?

Quite a deal of variety, from his early days (‘Town Called Malice’), to the more contemplative ballads of older age, such as ‘Wild Wood’. All in all giving you a good sense of where Blur got a lot of their best ideas from.

Is it much cop?

Definitely. Weller might not tickle the taste buds of modern audiences, yet it’s surprising how many of these songs you will find intimately familiar. There’s a welter of classics here, sounding fresh to this day through their simplistic yet enduring quality.

How many good tracks?

Most of them, it must be said. ‘Town Called Malice’ kicks things off superbly, but other highlights must be mentioned: ‘Peacock Suit’ shows off powerful beats and rough vocals,

And the worst?

‘Walls Come Tumbling Down’ highlights one of the problems to be found in a 30-year career… that of losing sight of what truly constitutes a good song. All the elements can be in place yet be completely devoid of interest and invention. Back to back with ‘That’s Entertainment’, this forms a small blip in the album’s otherwise solid quality.

Biggest disappointment?

While quite a lot of incidental fun when you bother to give it a spin, this album doesn’t really bring you back for more. For the true Weller fan this won’t be the case, of course, but then again, the true Weller fan is going to own all the tracks already.

Verdict:

Hit Parade is an admirable catalogue of one of Britain’s most enduring and talented pop-purveyors. Yet it suffers come the two-thirds mark from sounding rather too much like Weller has begun to do covers of himself rather than produce anything new. A nice little distraction, or at least a Christmas present for dad… but that’s about it.

(3/5)