"This is dedicated to all our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in London last week," begins Paul Weller. "But in a strange sort of way I'd also like to dedicate it to the fucking cowards that were responsible." The modfather then takes up his guitar and unleashes a song as wounded, emotional and angry as anything in his canon. It's called Savages.

Already recorded (it appears on his forthcoming album) Savages wasn't written in response to the London bombings but sounds like it could have been. This is Weller's art in a nutshell. He's spent his career writing songs that are as relevant now as when they were recorded. Continuing relevancy has enabled him to survive peers, career shifts from the Jam to Style Council to solo artist and, not least, some ever-changing haircuts.

Weller looks very pleased with his latest barnet - a spiky modish mullet - but his lean, hard physical fitness and unusual bonhomie probably owes more to a rediscovered muse. It certainly seems significant that he avoids too many cushions of his greatest hits and leans on new material, much of it with a brass section. However, the spiky, angular From the Floorboards Up is a gentle reminder that Weller was checking out Gang of Four long before Franz Ferdinand. While his music ebbs and flows, his regular musicians instinctively follow his moods - even if that requires a 20-minute excursion into sublime psychedelic soul. Selections from his catalogue - especially Wild Wood's Can You Hear Us Holy Man? - seem absurdly poignant; A Town Called Malice has never sounded as furious. But amid deafening cries for "Well-ah!" the man hauls his band stagefront to applaud the audience. It suggests this barnstorming performance is one man's step towards pulling everybody back together.

· At the Guildford Festival (01483 454159) tonight. Then touring.