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."

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."

Track list

Deluxe edition CD 1/standard edition

All songs written by Paul Weller and Simon Dine.

Deluxe edition CD 2

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

1. "Part 1: Aim High (Aim Higher)" – 5:57
2. "Part 2: Pieces of a Dream (A Dream in Pieces)" – 5:27
3. "Part 3: Aim High (The Higher Aim)" – 4:57
4. "Part 4: Aim High (Like Water Needs a Flower)" – 5:05

Bonus tracks

1. "Pieces of a Dream – original version" – 2:56
2. "Grasp & Still Connect – original version" – 2:22

Personnel

Charts