''Heliocentric'' is the fifth studio album by the English singer-songwriter

Paul Weller John William Weller (born 25 May 1958), better known as Paul Weller, is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame in the late 1970s as the guitarist and principal singer and songwriter of the rock band the Jam, alongside ...

, released in 2000. It peaked at No. 2 on the

UK Albums chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...

Production

''Heliocentric'' was produced by Brendan Lynch. Its name was inspired by the Helios desk used in the recording studio. The string arrangements were contributed by Robert Kirby.

Critical reception

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' wrote: "Infuriatingly, relentlessly dull, he albumsuggests that Weller is not only dry of opinions and melodies, but disengaged from the very concept of fresh ideas." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' called the album "a mustering of forces, as if ellers suddenly realised that coasting on his reputation as Mr Authentically Gritty won't keep those automatic Brit awards coming in." ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand, ...

'' called it "a solid, often dense, and musicianly collection that in its acoustic-framed songs echoes ''Wildwood''."

Track listing

The original album cover has a printing mistake which shows tracks 4 & 5 in the wrong order. The correct order is shown below. All tracks composed by Paul Weller # "He's the Keeper" # "Frightened" # "Sweet Pea, My Sweet Pea" # "A Whale's Tale" # "Back in the Fire" # "Dust and Rocks" # "There's No Drinking, After You're Dead" # "With Time & Temperance" # "Picking Up Sticks" # "Love-Less"

Personnel

*Paul Weller – vocals, guitar, piano *Cliff Stapleton –

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

Steve Cradock Stephen Cradock (born 22 August 1969) is an English guitarist, most notable for playing in the rock group Ocean Colour Scene. Cradock also plays the guitar in Paul Weller's band, having appeared on all of Weller's solo records following his se ...

– guitar *Dominic Kelly – oboe * Brendan Lynch – keyboards, percussion * Steve White – drums *Damon Minchella – bass * Robert Kirby – string arrangements

References

2000 albums Paul Weller albums Albums arranged by Robert Kirby Island Records albums {{2000-rock-album-stub