Paul Weller Made Up Lyrics as He Went Along for New Album

Forget such carefully observed social commentary as "They smelled of pubs/And Wormwood Scrubs/And too many right-wing meetings," the words for Paul Weller's latest solo album came from a rather more spontaneous place.

"Instead of going in [to the studio] with a batch of lyrics, I didn't have anything at all," the ex-Jam frontman has told BBC 6 Music. "When it got round to me doing the vocal, I'd just sit there and [sing] the first thing that would come into my head, really. It's nice after all these years to think there's still a method of working which you haven't done before."

Sounds like Weller may have taken some compositional tips from his old mucker Noel Gallagher.

'Wake Up the Nation,' Weller's 10th studio album, is released in the UK next week and the singer-songwriter says the record has "a more experimental edge" than previous efforts. In part he puts this down to his exposure to new genres of music, including "a lot of folk stuff from the last few years -- it's like finding another little universe there." He added he found himself listening to "things I never would have dreamt of listening to because I had my own preconceptions of it."

He also says that critics who referenced genres such as Krautrock in reviews of '22 Dreams,' the predecessor of 'Wake Up the Nation', helped open his mind to new musical directions. "They talked about people I'd never heard of before, so I've consequently tried to buy those things as well," he explains.

Not that fans should fear that Weller's new disc is all about sonic experimentation and difficult new directions. "The title says it all but I wanted to challenge people with the music but also to make people feel positive as well," he says. "[It's] an uplifting record."