Customer Reviews

Fly on the Wall: B-Sides & Rarities 1991-2000

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

All I can say is, Paul Weller is GOD!!!
I have been a huge Weller fan since the Jam days, and just about everything he does is excellent. It is a shame that the rest of the U.S., does not recognize his greatness.
This 3 cd box set contains all of Wellers b-sides, and covers that have not been released in the U.S. . Many of these b-sides have already been released in Europe, and Japan, but not here.
See him live, when he tours the U.S. in October of 2003.

This nice miniboxset is a must for all you Weller fans and contains some bsides that are better than alot of his album tracks. Tracks like Fly on the wall- everything has a price to pay- a year late- the portishead remix of wildwood- and Heres a new thing are quality tunes that most artists would kill for. The covers album is solid but not great but the abundance of experimental tracks and remix material shows Weller isnt the "safe" musician some critics claim he is. Theres some acid jazz-techno- alittle triphop and ambient scattered on a few songs-something that he doesnt get credit for. The lower price makes this a good buy and a tidy way to collect all those expensive ebay oop singles. For the new or casual fan this may not be essential but you could do no harm by picking this up!

Having spent a lot of time, money, and effort in purchasing dozens of the many Paul Weller singles on CD since 1990 (and not being able to find many that I'd like for a reasonable price) I welcome this compilation. Yes, there are many throw away tunes here including Kosmos but the covers and the live cuts all together in this box set are really nice to have on only a few long playing CD's instead of the stack of CD singles I constantly have to look for. This "Fly on the Wall" compilation is only for the serious Paul Weller fan I'd imagine. If you want to have a great Paul Weller compilation full of listenable hits then "Modern Classics" with the bonus live CD would be to your liking, or his latest "Illumination" album with the DVD that is quite moving and not unlike the early Rod Stewart "Gasoline Alley" album in its overall sound, especially the cut "Going Places." The reason this compilation of songs is necessary is that most of these are deleted and rare CD's and are on many labels. This box set puts them all together. Plus, Paul Weller will get the profits with your purchase that he richly deserves for three decades of fine music.

Great idea (except for those cardboard sleeves. I took my 3 CDs out and put them in CD cases on the shelves).
All those elusive b-sides and rare songs from singles (not available on the regular albums) are collected here. It'll save you a fortune in singles if nothing else.
The songs are great too, including the instrumentals.
PAUL, CAN YOU DO THE SAME TREATMENT WITH THE STYLE COUNCIL B-SIDES AND RARITIES. A SIMILAR ALBUM WOULD BE WELCOMED BY THE FANS, I'M SURE.
Love this stuff.

Fly On The Wall is a 39 track, 3 CD compilation of B sides, rarities and cover versions. The discs are packaged in a lovely white box. Also enclosed is a handsome booklet that features photographs and liner notes by former NME scribe John Harris.

As you can tell from the tracklisting above, Fly On The Wall is an essential purchase for the Paul Weller fan. Everything included here is of a very high standard. I'm particularily fond of the remixes by the likes of Brendan Lynch, Portishead and Noonday Underground (although for some odd reason Lynch's wonderful rearrangement of Sunflower is absent).

There are a few unadventurous souls out there who feel Paul Weller should still be fronting The Jam (see the other "reviews" for proof), in the meantime the rest of us will sit back and enjoy a boxset that contains some of his best ever material.

Fly of the wall does just what is says, collects the b sides and extra tracks from the endless stream of singles Weller released in his "solo" career. IMHO the quality slides downhill from the first few releases, but being a huge SC fan and a (not as big) Jam fan I found most of Weller's mid to late 90s stuff not much fun and essentially forgettable Cream/Oasis style guitar work outs anyway, so I am baised.

The covers album is ok, but only serves to highlight how few good songs Weller composed himself in the 90s. While few of the cover songs strike me the way that "You Do Something To Me" pretty much all of them are better than the other Weller album tracks from the period. (One would expect that from a cover, otherwise why choose to cover it, but still)...

Fans are gonna need this set (especially since some of the mid 90s CD singles from Weller have "turned" and are essentially unplayable I find) but the general public should take a pass. If you must own a Weller solo album stick with his most recent or his best of.

I was a huge fan of the jam , but Ive grown to despise Paul Weller and this CD strengthens my view. This is a covers cd and hasn't got a patch on albums like all mod cons or sound affects.With paul weller everything is about a quick buck and ripping off a loyal fan base , with over a dozen jam compilations ,rarities, box sets and dvd's in the last few years.[since he bought the exclussive rights to all the jam recordings from the rest of the band].This album is bland so give it a miss and spend your money on the new stiff little fingers cd which features bruce foxton