Wake Up the Nation explained

Wake Up the Nation
Type:	studio
Artist:	Paul Weller
Cover:	Paul Weller Wake Up the Nation Album Cover.jpg
Recorded:	2009
Studio:	Black Barn Studios, Woking, Surrey
Genre:	Rock, Indie rock
Label:	Island (UK, EU) Yep Roc (USA)
Producer:	Simon Dine
Prev Title:	Paul Weller – Deluxe Edition
Prev Year:	2009
Next Title:	Sonik Kicks
Next Year:	2012

Wake Up the Nation is the tenth studio album from Paul Weller and was released on 19 April 2010. It was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize. The albums was dedicated to "absent friends – John Weller, Pat Foxton and Robert Kirby".

It is the first of Weller's albums since 1982 to feature contributions from Bruce Foxton, formerly of The Jam. Weller told Mojo magazine: "We'd both lost loved ones and without getting too spiritual that was the spur of it. I spoke to him this time last year when his wife Pat was ill and that broke the ice, then I invited him down to Black Barn (studio). There was no big plan, it was easy, a laugh, and nice to see him and work together again. We just slipped back into it."^[1]

Reception

Wake Up the Nation received great acclaim from most music critics. In Metro, John Lewis awarded the album 4 stars out of 5 and commented: "Since turning 50 two years ago, the Modfather seems to be making the most adventurous music of his career, astounding even the most Weller-phobic critics ... Most of the 16 tracks are short, sharp, clever and often wonderfully odd: check out bonkers music hall epic Trees, jazz waltz In Amsterdam or militaristic sound collage 7&3 Is The Strikers Name (an unlikely collaboration with My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields). Weller loyalists will be reassured by the copper-bottomed dad-rock staples, while Style Council fans will love Aim High, his finest blue-eyed soul ballad in ages."^[2]

Track list

Deluxe edition CD 1/standard edition

All songs written by Paul Weller and Simon Dine.

1. "Moonshine" – 2:09
2. "Wake Up the Nation" – 2:19
3. "No Tears to Cry" – 2:25
4. "Fast Car / Slow Traffic" – 1:58
5. "Andromeda" – 1:53
6. "In Amsterdam" – 2:18
7. "She Speaks" – 2:15
8. "Find the Torch, Burn the Plans" – 3:09
9. "Aim High" – 3:08
10. "Trees" – 4:19
11. "Grasp & Still Connect" – 2:16
12. "Whatever Next" – 1:38
13. "7&3 Is the Strikers Name" – 3:24
14. "Up the Dosage" – 2:40
15. "Pieces of Dream" [sic] – 2:26
16. "Two Fat Ladies" – 2:39

Deluxe edition CD 2

1. "Wake Up the Nation" (Zinc's Crack House remix) – 5:10
2. "Fast Car / Slow Traffic" (Erland & Carnival Carnivalization) – 2:50
3. "Grasp & Still Connect" (The Bees version) – 2:47
4. "She Speaks" (Tunng remix) – 3:57
5. "Andromeda" (Richard Hawley remix) – 3:51
6. "In Amsterdam" (Noonday Underground remix) – 2:00
7. "No Tears to Cry" (Leo Zero remix) 8:03
8. "Find the Torch, Burn the Plans" (Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's remix)

Aim High / Pieces of a Dream – The Amorphous Androgynous Remix

Bonus tracks

Personnel

• Paul Weller
• Hannah Andrews – backing vocals (3,5,9,10,13,14)
• Bev Bevan – drums (1,2)
• Mark Boxall – guitar (10)
• Barrie Cadogan – guitar (1,16), bass guitar (16)
• Clem Cattini – drums (3)
• Steve Cradock – percussion (2), backing vocals (3), guitar (4,8,14), 12 string guitar (5), bass guitar (14), drums (14,15)
• Andy Crofts – bass guitar (1), stylophone (8), guitar (11), backing vocals (15), string arrangement (9)
• Rosie Danvers – cello (3,9,15)
• Terry Edwards – saxophone (2), horns (11)
• Bruce Foxton – bass guitar (4,7), backing vocals (4)
• Charles Rees – drums (5,8,10,12,15), autoharp (12), guitar (15)
• Laura Rees – backing vocals (3,13,14)
• Sally Jackson – violin (3,9,15)
• Jamie Johnson – bass guitar (15)
• Andy Lewis – bass guitar (9), backing vocals (15)
• Roger Nowell – synth guitar (5)
• Emma Owens – viola (3,9,15)
• Kerenza Peacock – violin (3,9,15)
• Steve Pilgrim – drums (9,10,11), backing vocals (15)
• Kevin Shields – guitar (7,13)
• The Woking Gay Community Choir – backing vocals (8)

Charts

Chart (2010)! scope="col"

Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)^[3]	63

Notes and References

1. Web site: She Speaks . Songfacts.com . 12 April 2010.
2. John Lewis Metro, 19 April 2010.
3. 298.