REVIEWS:
The Jam are probably the quintessential example of the hard-working British band that managed to find massive success in their own country but were almost entirely ignored in America. Were my name Mike O'Hara, I'd make a sweeping, ultra-biased statement about how this was a prime example of a massive, carefully-orchestrated cultural embargo against British bands by the American record industry and then go on to lay down a thesis about how Depeche Mode ended the Cold War. Since it's not, I'll just shrug my shoulders and say "that's a shame," since as far as good, smartly-written rock music is concerned, I've heard almost none better than that which came out of the frilly quill pen of one Mr. Paul Weller. I'd heard people raving about how the Jam were like a late-'70s equivalent of the Beatles in not only popularity across the pond but also songwriting ability, and so I went into buying their expensive imported albums (now annoyingly available for cheap at a nearby Amoeba Records) with high hopes - but I wasn't expecting it to be true!
The Jam's music owed a lot to the punk movement (and its influences, like the Who), of which the band was an active participant during the two or so weeks when the movement was in full swing, but they were just so far ahead of their contemporaries (even the Clash) with regard to clever songwriting and pure catchy hooks that it just amazes me. Paul Weller's barking, pseudo-Cockney voice is kind of an acquired taste, but when it's backed up by strong hooks and some of the strongest instrumental backing in rock music (Bruce Foxton on bass, Rick Buckler on drums, not to mention Weller on lead guitar...........DAMN), it makes it a bit easier to get used to. This is a great freakin' band, and if I didn't hate writing intro paragraphs so much I'd probably rave about them some more.
--Rich Bunnell
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COMMENTS
"they were just so far ahead of their contemporaries (even the Clash) with regard to clever songwriting and pure catchy hooks that it just amazes me."
You know I'm going to have to kill you for saying that, right?
(Rich Bunnell's review)
The cover looks like it was shot in a bathroom, and the album sounds like it was recorded in one. At least they have a consistent theme going on -- these Cockney punks were known for their meticulously-crafted concept albums. Muddled, homogenous sound aside, on their debut the Jam, still technically a punk band at this point, definitely do quite the honorable job of distinguishing themselves amidst the legions of British snot-nosers. The songs for the most part rush by on waves of guitars over a steady backbeat, as expected, but the songs are strangely memorable and identifiable as compositions of their own, maybe not as consistently strong as the tunes on the Clash's debut (yeah, I know I said the Jam were a better band than the Clash, but not at this point in their career, so leave me alone and quit trying to peg me as inconsistent) but definitely not material for the dustbin either. When the music borders on generic, Weller's almost always there to save the day with a tasty guitar lick or two (especially on the opener "Art School," with possibly the finest two-note guitar hook ev--wait, I'll stop right now before I go crazy with the superlatives, but the song's awesome) and the song level generally remains consistently enough on the "catchy as a mother" level to forgive them for any genericisms anyway.
I'll admit that some of the songs pass me by almost completely (how does "Takin' My Love" go again? "Non-Stop Dancing," anyone? Sure, I'll dance to it....assuming I can remember the melody......so I'll have to pass) and for some inexplicable reason they throw on a cover of the Batman theme song (which is hilarious, but still....). Weller's overcharged songwriting is otherwise very sharp, though, best encapsulated by chiming melodic ditties like "Sounds From The Street" and more stomping, hard-hitting compositions like the amazing, thickly-layered "Away From The Numbers" and "Time For Truth" (with a great "fuck off!" outburst that manages to be unexpected yet fits into the meter of the verses perfectly). They rush through a cover of Larry Williams' "Slow Down" with admirable energy, and the title track is probably the best song from the band's early punk period, with a great messy Who-ish raucous sound, almost irrepressable power and a riff that manages to be basic yet undeniably creative at the same time. The album doesn't personally floor me like several of the band's later ones, but that's not at all to say that it's doesn't have its own punkish charm. It's definitely worth hearing, even if it's a bit simple and formulative.
HIGH POINTS: Away From The Numbers. LOW POINTS: None.
Released in 1977, In The City found The Who trying to capitalize on the growing punk movement, and that results in their worst 70's album. The sound of this baby is taken directly from the older records like The Who Sings My Generation and A Quick One and adopted to the "three chords and the truth" formula. Of course, it was easy to adopt their trademark sound, 'cause The Who was one of those garage bands that actually started the punk music. So, on here, we have Roger Daltrey in his low voice singing out pissed-off and "fuck you" lyrics; Pete Townshend's guitar sounds way too straightforward for this guy; John Entwistle's bass is high in the mix, but it never actually sounds like John's bass, and, moreover, Keith Moon's drums never really sound like Keith Moon drums, and that I find a kind of surprising wonder. I must also say that it's interesting to listen to 30-something years old The Who trying to burst out punk rock in between the indescribable guitar rock of The Who By Numbers and synth-rock of Who Are You, and it's completely clear that they were trying to sell out. For the second time in history, HA HA HA!
As for the songs, they are middling. Really middling, and that's the pure sign of Pete's songwriting starting to decline (actually, By Numbers can't boast a great songwriter either, but it is at least have some songs at the level of classics). Okay, so the guy is still great on an epic "Away From The Numbers" that captivates on its' catchy chorus line, surprisingly well done (for late-70's Keith) drum knockoffs and a furious, twisted guitar rock attack. And I also feel that "Art School" is a kind of decent thing too, even if they are using the same formula as on "I Can't Explain" 13 years ago. It is really sad that the band as great as The Who were trying to sell out the ideas of old days.
And it's also sad that, beside of two mentioned ones, I can't find a single spectacular song. Yeah, "Bricks And Mortar" is rocking and decadent, but not very memorable. "Non-Stop Dancing" is, for sure, danceable and even catchy, but cheesy and calculated. "I've Changed My Address" sounds like a punk Led Zeppelin cover band going to The Who's '65 material's funeral. "Sounds From The Street" sounds actually more like moddy Kinks than The Who, but ya know, with the sound In The City explores, that's some kind of a thin line. "Takin ' My Love" has an ideal guitar line, but vocal melody is way too sober to be Pete's work. "Slow Down" is a cover of some old song that I never was aware about, absolutely unmemorable and leaving me without any idea about its' purpose - what's for, Pete? To remind The Clash-lovin' crowd how cool the old songs are? Desperate and trying to kick out the jams, The Who take their long-forgotten cover of "Batman Theme" from their Ready! Steady! Who! EP (now available on A Quick One's re-issue), and it can't compare with 1966 version. I, personally, miss that bass attack. I'm pretty sure John didn't have his arms workin' the day it was recorded.
Well, to sum al things, this isn't exactly a bad record, but it certainly has something. Like "Away From The Numbers". But, overall, it doesn't success on many levels, leaving me in the doubts about its' worth. Well, if you are the beginning The Who fan, buy it. If you aren't, don't. Get some Jam instead: Now, THAT was a good band (at that time): I heard their debut album was released the same year: What's its' title, mom?
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(reviewed by Rich Bunnell)
"I don't give two fucks about your review!" That's all well and good, Paul, but I'm still gonna write it - I get my kicks from tearing apart these works of art, and there ain't nuthin' you're gonna do about it, harhar. The Jam's second album bears the ever-so-common "sophomore slump" reputation for the ever-so-common reasons that the band was rushed into the studio after the success of their first album unready to produce a followup, blah blah blah. They did a reasonably good job under the circumstances - with the exceptions of a toss-off cover of Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" and the brief rave-up "In The Street, Today," both of which combined take up less than four minutes of the album, all of the songs are actual fully-written entities of their own, songs instead of ideas. Plus, the brief time spent in the studio must have been time well-spent, because the production values are a leap ahead of those on the debut, with each instrument standing out in the mix instead of all of them blending together into a mushy punky porridgy sludge attack like they did before. The improved production in particular really adds a punchy, dynamic edge to the single and minor British hit "The Modern World," with a memorable Cockney "This is the moduhn wuhld!" intro and hooks oozing out of almost every crack in the joint. It's a fantastic song, easily as strong as the majority of their later singles, and that's a friggin' compliment.
The problem with the album isn't at all with its technical aspects, but rather that Weller's songwriting just isn't as memorable this time around as it was on the debut - tunes like "Life In A Window" and "The Combine" are okay and display some fairly incisive social commentary (and the latter even has a neat 1984 reference that people misinterpret as a reference to Churchill because of the use of the name "Winston" - Big Brother is watching you), but as far as hooks go they're just not as memorable as stuff like "Art School." Also, the songwriting is generally more mannered - even one of the highlights, "Standards," is slightly marred by a distracting similarity to the Who's "I Can't Explain" (I swear, that has got to be one of the most influential riffs of all time next to "Sweet Jane," because bands kept ripping it off over and over again). There's still some good tuneage going on, though - the ballad "I Need You (For Someone)" is really pretty and has a more complex and developing harmony arrangement than anything Weller had written previously, and Bruce Foxton's two contributions "London Traffic" and "Don't Tell Them You're Sane" are riffy and enjoyable if a bit brainless lyrically (the former is, literally, about traffic in London - deep stuff!). The album's less consistent than In The City, but it's very nearly as enjoyable and the always-reliable skills of the bandmembers manage to keep matters afloat and ripe with yummy riffitude.
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(Rich Bunnell's review)
I have no idea what the title means since I was Mr. Stupid Import-Buying Dumbass and ended up shelling out my hard-earned moola for the non-remastered version of this album without the detailed liner notes, but what I do know is that this has got to be one of the greatest leaps forward that I've heard from any band. Don't translate my text in the wrong direction, because the first two depositories of punky Jammage are every bit as enjoyable as I say they are. This is just so far ahead of either of them in both professionalism and songcraft, though, that it's hard to believe that the tunes on here came from the same creative minds that had to resort to recording a cover of the Batman theme in desperate need of filler material only, uh, one year earlier. Where the music was jagged and guitar-driven before, here it's melodic, well-constructed, and above all, diverse - to strike another vapid Clash comparison, it's a lot like the jump that that particular band made between Give 'Em Enough Rope and London Calling, only, dare I say, this album has a sort of consistency that that album lacks (I mean, it's great and all, but "Revolution Rock"? If I'd written that song, I'd live the rest of my life in shame trying to make up for that fact by smashing every brass instrument I saw in a store window). Even when the band resorts to the more simplistic riffy style of the earlier albums, like on the brief title track or the stomper "'A' Bomb On Wardour Street," it results in stuff that undoubtedly would've seen single release had they been included on said albums.
The album does its best to keep the listener engaged and interested, and since there's not a bad song in sight this isn't too difficult of a task. The low-key, bassy "Mr. Clean" is engagingly bleak with a uniquely in-your-face melody, and "To Be Someone" does a fine job of reconciling two completely different hooks into one two-and-a-half minute slab of punchy goodness. The grammatically-awkward ballad "English Rose" is the first really touching song the band ever recorded, with nimble and gentle guitar plucking during the muted refrain, and "Fly" follows in the same general style except with a melodic outburst of a chorus that's just impossible to resist. Bruce Foxton gets the chance to break away from Weller's domination of the songwriting by tackling the lead vocal on a cover of the Kinks' "David Watts" which adds some not-necessarily-needed but still-nice-to-have energy to Ray Davies' classic piano-driven character portrait.
Finally, the closer "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" manages to make the idea of getting mugged in the subway sound almost poetic thanks to some of Weller's strongest lyrics ("The distant echo of faraway voices boarding faraway trains"), and it's catchy on top of that, with a ringing guitar line that foreshadows the Cure's "Boys Don't Cry" and effective call-and-response "oooowaaaaooooos" which're always nice to have in a song no matter what the context. It's a bit paranoid of the guy to think that the muggers would go to his house just because they took his keys, though -- really, if they chose a life of crime in the first place they'd probably be too lazy to take the time and figure out the exact directions to this dude's apartment. I bet that they ended up just blowing the money on smokes and throwing the keys into a river like assholes or something.
Back to the important point - the album's a blast. Even the songs I didn't mention are every bit as great as the ones I did (I'm looking at you in particular, "It's Too Bad," you wonderful little harmonized bouncy poppy great thing you -- oh wait, now I did mention it), and this isn't even the Jam at the peak of their powers. The British public lapped up this stuff for a reason, and since it was still twelve years before Robbie Williams was even part of a musical group, the country's musical tastes at that point could easily be trusted.
HIGH POINTS: In The Crowd, English Rose, It's Too Bad, David Watts, Mr. Clean, To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time). LOW POINTS: None
On In The City (I've never heard This Is The Modern World, so I can't say) Paul Weller wanted The Jam to be The Who - set the guitars on fire; brought the image of his own band to the altar of Holy Townshend; wrote lyrics about being a pissed-off young guy; covered "Batman Theme" and ROCKED OUT. On All Mod Cons, Weller wants The Jam to be The Kinks - the guitars suddenly sound gentle; there are three young intellectuals on the cover; Weller writes smart society-, modern life-, whatever-bashing lyrics; covers "David Watts" and tries to be ENGLISH TO THE CORE. Not that The Who influence had suddenly disappeared - the band still can rock out when it's necessary and some tracks are still reminiscent of those old school Who rockers off In The City. So, to be completely clear, this album sounds more like a cross between old wise uncle Ray and familiar working daddy Pete.
The most important thing, however, is that Paul had suddenly improved his songwriting. And improved it to such a great level that I have to say that All Mod Cons is a really solid album. The melodies clearly stand out, the arrangements are nice, and the record is more or less diverse: It's a GOOD record. Really GOOD. Compared to what two main Weller's inspirations were doing at that time, it's a masterpiece. And it's also the best Jam album I've ever heard. Or, at least, the one Jam record than entertain me most of all. Damn, I think I lost it all.
Ok, so, what's about songs? Well, even though the title track is, like, a short punk wasteaway, and "The Place I Love" and "A Bomb In Wardour Street" kind of pass me by, the songs are awesome. "To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time)" is something like a mega-fast Kinks song, equally catchy and equally well done. The song also kind of alternates in between "To Be Someone" part and "Didn't We Have A Nice Time" part. My favourite is the former, because it sounds really pretty English. I like England. Many good songs were written about that country, like, The Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society", Pet Shop Boys' "Being (A Big Old Fat And) Boring (Country)", Paul Simon's "America", G.G. Allin's "I Wanna Fuck Myself" and, of course, all these atonal King Crimson jams. Yeah, I SWEAR they all are about Britain!
And did I mention that there are two ballads on here too? "Fly" is the worst one out of two, because apart from that powerful guitar chord, there's like, nothing much, just a pleasant enough generic rock balladry, but "English Rose" is incredible. It's only Weller with his acoustic guitar, and this song alone shows that: a) gentle acoustic ballads may be catchy; b) Paul Weller definitely likes English language; c) Paul Weller can sing normally, not only in that angry growl that can perfectly fit any Opeth album. Actually, fuck that, he sings pretty good everywhere. Take, for instance, "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" - can you say that Paul's singing on here sucks? You CAN'T, because he sings well! On the other hand, the guy who makes these "Oooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaooooooooooooh"'s at the background (Bruce Foxton? Rick Buckler? Frankie Valli?) annoys the shit out of me. But that's not a problem, because the song itself is solid and kind of catchy. I especially like that ending - some serious three-instruments-instrumental-kick-assing-power here, I'd say.
That leaves us with (*quickly looks at the album's sleeve*) five more songs. The worst of them, "Billy Hunt" is still good, but didn't make the list of highlights because it doesn't differ too much from your average punk song. "David Watts" is NOT an average punk song - it's an average classic Kinks song cover, and, to be completely honest, I prefer Jam's version to the original - Weller's reading gave the song some more energy and it is aggressive, just like the original should have been, IMHO. "Mr. Clean" sounds like Kinks too, and it's also a great song - catchy and dark. "It's Too Bad" is even more catchy and fun - a perfect LennonMcCartneysque popper all along. Finally, there's "In The Crowd", and THAT'S a truly awesome song. It begins like a great pop song, with an insanely memorable hook ("When I'm in the crowd, I can't see anything") and superb lyrics but then goes right into a furious jam, where the band kicks and Weller gets out Dave Davies and Pete Townshend out of his guitar for three minutes straight.
Overall, you must get this album. I know that information that Noel Gallagher once said it's his favourite record of all time can make you vomit and forget about All Mod Cons forever, but, listen, this is a good album. Far better than any Oasis album, except for What's The Story Morning Glory? and Heathen Chemistry. Get it now
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(Rich Bunnell's review)
It's pretty rare in the non-Beatles musical landscape for a band to release an album that's flawless in every possible way and then somehow follow it up by releasing an album that manages to top it, but the bastards managed to pull it off anyway. Setting Sons is yet another entry in the Who's Next Failed Concept Album Sweepstakes, since Weller originally intended the album to be a conceptual release about three schoolyard chums who veer off into three differing political directions and then reconvene after a bloody civil war takes place and notice how their lives were affected by their decisions, but damned if he was able to figure out how to set any of this to music. What really matters is that the actual songs themselves are killer, uniformly the best of the band's career. Unlike on All Mod Cons, the songwriting isn't all over the post-punk insert-Kinks-influence-here musical map, instead mostly sticking to a dark new-wavey guitar-rock sound that really hits the spot as far as clever hooks and riffs are concerned. Weller himself considers the album to be one of his weakest, probably pretentiously bitter that he wasn't able to ride the concept to completion, but I don't think that most sentient, clear-thinking listeners will find much to identify with in his statement because the quality of the music on here totally tears apart any problems caused by a lack of thematic cohesion.
Basically, half of the ten songs on the album fit Weller's original vision and half of them were thrown on after he'd abandoned it like a wuss, and for the most part it's pretty easy to tell which ones are which - basically, if a song is musically and lyrically dark, it was part of the concept. Of course, this supposed-to-be-all-encompassing statement is thrown into disarray by the mega-depressing "Wasteland" which is set to one of the happiest pop melodies on the album (bastard) and the too-cool-for-words dark rocker "Private Hell" which is actually about the claustrophobic life of a housewife (double bastard). What holds the album together in the end is the consistently-awesome level of songcraft -- each and every one of these songs could've rightfully dominated the British airwaves. The one that actually turned out being a British hit single was "The Eton Rifles," which pounds a heavy, rumbling bassline into the unsuspecting ears of the listener and then rewards him (only guys listen to the Jam, and good music in general, so I'm leaving it unambiguous - yes, I'm kidding) with an adrenaline-rising choral chant of "E-ton RI-fles! E-ton RI-fles!" "Thick As Thieves" is just as good if not even better, though, being one of the prime examples of good, solid songwriting in my book (actually, Ben Marlin's book - I stole it from him and he's not getting it back) - the song doesn't even really have a central hook, but manages to carry itself along on the sheer impact on the music, though Weller's delicate, fluttery guitar tone doesn't hurt either.
There isn't really much else to say on the whole, so I'll just go on describing songs - "Saturday's Kids" is the band's prerequisite great poppy guitar-rock "na na na na na" song, "Girl On The Phone" would be the band's prerequisite girl-I-love-you song if the lyrics didn't smack of paranoia and obsession, and "Heat Wave" is the band's prerequisite amazing Motown cover which manages to blow the original into the stratosphere in a way that their cover of "In The Midnight Hour" totally didn't. "Little Boy Soldiers" crams a pretentious epic into three-and-a-half minutes thus removing most of the pretentiousness, and Bruce Foxton's lone contribution "Smithers-Jones" is helped along by a melodically-wussy bouncy string quartet arrangement that manages to make up for the fact that the song's melody is a total ripoff of the Who's "I Can't Reach You." Sellouts. Hehe, my Who reference album title pun is funny. And that's all ah have ta say about thayt - this album is the Jam at the peak of their powers and one of the only albums ever that I'd christen flat-out perfect - usually when I give a 10 it's with some reservation, but this is an ultra-rare exception. So you'd best appreciate it!!
HIGH POINTS: The Eton Rifles, Smithers-Jones, Girl On The Phone, Wasteland. LOW POINTS: Burning Sky
If Paul Weller ever really taught us anything, it is the fact that, to become a cult musician and crap, you just had to approach yourself in the lat-70's England, wearing bland suit and pretending to play punk while what you are playing is really a mix of two of your favourite bands. The fact that you are a pretty good songwriter doesn't matter here - people will praise you just for your image and, of course, deep lyrics, which are made of loud statement, all of which were probably used by better lyricsts before you. Oh, and your fourth album must be a pretty chaotic collection of the songs, also.
You see, by the time when you would finally reach the superstar level in British Empire (that must be just right after your third album), you should decide to make your own "deep" album, a philosophical statement, if there ever was one and a guide to the right life. Make it a conceptual album, and, say, the concept like this should be fine: take a concept of three boys who went on life in a different ways, rip-offed from some relatively obscure prog band, mix it with nuclear apocalypse, and don't forget to warn us with some preachy lyrics. Overall, you can use any concept, as long as it sucks as much as any concept that one of your main inspirations did back in the mid-70's, it should be allright. Then, scrape the idea of the concept album in process of writing songs, but bring some songs that you've written on the album. Also, remember one thing while writing the lyrics - always try to be depressive as fuck. Kids just love that nowdays, ya know.
As for the music, remember that you are a really good songwriter, so don't care for it for the most time. Catchy, one-hook melodies with some twists in structure should be allright to satisfy both fans and critics. Take a look at the sound of your band, instead - change your mod proto-punk intonations to the new wave sound, but don't forget to actually arrange them for your well-known singing growl/raw guitar/heavy bass/big drums sound. Oh, and tell 'em all your songwriting ability has grown up to the level of the greats. To prove that, write a pretentious 3:10 multi-part pop epic, "Little Boy Soldiers" will do. It doesn't matter that all these parts don't fit together and most of them could be rather developed into separate killer songs (especially that "I'm up on the hill, playing little boy soldiers:" part) - it is still a multi-part song! Oh, and don't forget to open it with a kick-ass line like "It's funny how you never knew what my name was/ Our only contact was the form for the election", to catch a listener's attention.
You also should put a hopelessly generic song right into the middle of the album to show everyone that you don't fucking give a shit about those who will actually buy the album: Yeah, "Burning Sky" is PERFECT for that! 100% generic and unmemorable! Yeah! And, of course, close the album with a cover of an old Motown song, like "Heatwave". Don't fear if people will again compare you with The Who, who also covered it, because you do covers pretty well. Remember "David Watts" cover? That one was good. So should be "Heatwave". Oh, and in order to fill space in your album, put "Saturday's Kids" on here, which must have a really good guitar line, but apart from that yummy piece of six-string electric writing, there should be nothing much to look for.
What else? Well, just to show that your band is: well, a band, you should allow your bassist to write a song, let him call it "Smithers-Jones". If it' s a strings-driven ballad that completely separates you from the crowds of angry punks and shows your intelligence, it's incredible. It also must be a VERY good song, with some really ear-pleasing melody. That's it. You must also write a song like "Wasteland", which takes an ultra-mega-clickhereforhotgayporn-super depressive set of lyrics to some optimistic music with flute and stuff. Open the album with "Girl On The Phone", the song that must be really cool, with ringing guitars, multiple hooks and a great fast feel in it - that will be ok. Considering "Thick As Thiefs", confuse everyone on here by mixing a guitar-heavy anthemic mood of the song with completely non-anthemic songs sung in the cheeriest way possible. Oh, and there's always "Private Hell" for you - the song that is just there, but is largely saved by another of your nearly great one-hook melodies.
And now, the most important part. [Yoda]Write a one song that is awesome completely, you must[/Yoda]. Call it "Eton Rifles". It must be one of your very best and also one of the most famous songs by you, because you must release it as a single. It should be AMAZING, I repeat. Write your most memorable chorus, which goes "HURRAH HURRAH the rain starts play with the ETON RIFLES, ETON RIFLES!", put a strange near-reggae part with a cool keyboard solo, and make last minute of this song an absolute heaven for those who really like hard fucking rock. Yeah. So, have you already done that? Congrats then, you have just made your masterpiece. Now go ahead and tell me Paul Weller isn't as smart as he is.
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[email protected] (George Starostin)
Not a bad album, but it's an objective fact that "Thick As Thieves" is the worst song on here.
i totaly agree with the 10 out of 10 rating you gave the album. i personally think its the best album the jam have done. every song on the album is nothing short of brilliant especialy private hell and little boy soldiers.
(reviewed by Rich Bunnell)
The followup to Setting Sons has a much more fragmented, herky-jerky and simplistic feel than its predecessor, either because Weller was exhausted from his failed attempt to craft a conceptual album or he was listening to a bunch of old Beatles records in the interim (never a bad thing). This album is often compared to Revolver, mostly because the lead single and British chart-topper "Start!" directly nicks the bassline from the epochally-bitchy Revolver cut "Taxman," but that's only the most obvious comparison. The album in general has the same overall tone as the Beatles one, with thin but punchy upfront production and songs that leap between several different moods within the space of only a few tracks. This is no better illustrated than in the opening three tracks - the anti-capitalistic anthem "Pretty Green" opens the album charging forth with towering, jankly power chords and a pounding chorus which only makes the tenderness of the ballad "Monday" which follows the song even more of a jarring shift in tone. Then BAM, the two-minutes-minus "But I'm Different Now" bursts out of the woodwork with a messy, churning In The City-like riff reaffirming the spirit of the Jam of old, which is always a neat thing for a prolific songwriter to do in his spare time.
The problem with this vast array of stylistic moods is that it allows Weller to lapse into a few experimental oddities that don't work as well as the crunching rock on the previous two albums - the main culprits are the near-instrumental band workout "Music For The Last Couple" which is catchy, but in a really awkward and go-nowhere kind of way, plus the closer "Scrape Away" which sounds a lot like early XTC, only without a unique, infectious melody of the kind that Senor Partridge would've dumped into the mix. These are very minor complaints, however, because every single other song on the album is a gem. The two most consistently-heralded fan favorites are the open, echoey '50s clap-along "Man In The Corner Shop" and the gorgeous, chiming ballad "That's Entertainment," where Weller's endlessly-sarcastic lyrics are almost completely buried in the mix but aren't hindered a bit by it. Perhaps my personal favorite is the five-minute "Set The House Ablaze," where Weller condemns the movement of British skinhead punks over an intense melody which even manages to make its Disney-like whisling counterharmonies sound chilling. Plus, in spite of the aforementioned Beatles ripoff, "Start!" is a really fine single, building a completely different, bouncier melody around the bassline that easily equals the original song in catchy singalong quality.
Granted, the album isn't held together as tightly as the last two and even though it's often the one recommended to newcomers and other curious folk, it has the amazing potential to disappoint on first listen since the songwriting isn't as direct and hard-hitting as Weller at his best. It reveals itself to be very nearly as good as prime Jam after a few listens, though, and it's probably the easiest one to find in America (due to its being their highest-charting...........#70 or somewhere around that general area) so I guess it's as good of a start as any. Buy whichever one you want first, I don't care.
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(reviewed by Rich Bunnell)
The band's swan song (and for some, last gasp) has the rather curious reputation of being the one where Weller abandoned all pretenses of sanity and recorded an all-out "soul album." This is more than likely because the big-deal British hit single this time around was a double A-side containing the socially-minded Motown pastiche "Town Called Malice" (immortalized in that scene in Billy Elliot where the kid starts uncontrollably dancing all over the city) and the out-of-control funk-thumper "Precious," both of which show Weller toning down the rock backbeat and baring his baby blue eyes, though he doesn't quite have the voice for that kind of stuff, to be quite honest. The choice of single release served as kind of an unfair representation of the rest of the album, since for the most part this stuff's not soul music at all. It's pretty much just Sound Affects with glossier production and an even wider and more insane range of styles. Where the last album was diverse, this one's just downright random - theyeven dip into Caribbean music with the dippy and weird-as-hell "The Planner's Dream Goes Wrong," and are even mildly successful at it, though I doubt that any amount of minor catchiness could make a song like that one of anybody's favorites (unless "Margaritaville" is their favorite song of all time or something).
So basically, the album is once again just a bunch of randomly-guided stylistic workouts, though the degree of success is a teensy bit lower than before, either because Weller was starting to lose control of his muse or he was just out of his element with most of the material he was attempting. The band gets the album off to a great start with the vocally-charged rocker "Happy Together," for example, but just a few songs later they're laying down a bunch of directionless backbeats and "whooooooooooah!"s on the rather lame "Trans-Global Express," an argument for the necessary nature of structure in a good rock song if there ever was one. Likewise, "Ghosts" manages to build a fantastic song out of one of the most minimalistic melodies Weller ever penned, built out of almost nothing but gently-plucked guitar and nearly muted trumpet, but it's occupying the same album as the pointlessly-messy melodically-deficient garage rock title track. Still, the good material definitely outweighs the bad, and more solidly-written traditional Jam material like "Running To Stand Still" and the lush, uneasy guitar ballad "Carnation" brings a solid backbone to all of the experimentation going on all over the premises. The album is less consistent than the band's classic trilogy, but it's certainly better than its reputation and far superior to the yuppie easy-listening music Weller started pumping out with his second band the Style Council (his own personal Wings) after the Jam's breakup following this album's release.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (George Starostin)
Not a bad album, but it's an objective fact that "Ghosts" is the worst song on here.
Oh yeah, Billy Elliot! Damn, that was a good movie! Didn't that have 'London Calling' in it too? By that band that's BETTER THAN THE JAM?
(reviewed by Rich Bunnell)
The Jam's music has been compiled over and over and over again on a number of discs with a number of names of varying quality ever since their unfortunate breakup, and the best I can do is to tell you which of those collections are probably best to avoid. For the sake of all that's holy, stay the hell away from Beat Surrender and Collection, each of which dresses up a few unavoidable singles with several completely random album tracks (the former even includes the cover of the Batman theme, probably out of recognition factor alone) for reasons beyond my earthly comprehension. On the other hand, either this particular compilation or the very similar Compact Snap! is a very necessary addition to any Jam fan's collection, since in addition to the better album tracks at least a complete album's worth of fantastic non-album singles are included, many of which are among the band's very best recorded material. Considering how good the actual album tracks included here are (amongst which are "The Eton Rifles," "In The City," "Town Called Malice," "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight," "The Modern World" and a slew of other great tunes), that's a pretty glowing compliment.
This particular collection is arranged in chronological order and collects basically every song that the Jam released which managed to hit the British charts, and the highs pop up all over the place. The song most often given high praise is the herky-jerky "Going Underground," which packs quite a solid rock crunch and a memorable "the pub-lic-gets what the pub-lic-wants" hook, but my personal favorites are "Funeral Pyre," with breathless, insane drumming demonstrating that Rick Buckler was just as much of a well-oiled talent machine as his two colleagues, and the post-Gift orchestrated soul ballad "The Bitterist Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)," with possibly the best vocal performance Weller coaxed out of his larynx during his tenure with the Jam. "Strange Town" is a great, well-harmonized rock tune very much in the All Mod Cons vein with a memorable "pack it up, pack it up!" ending, and "When You're Young" in addition to being quite a catchy little mother of a song is notable for containing Weller's most-often-quoted lyric, the pessimistic "the world's your oyster but the future's a clam!" The infectious, horn-spiked "Absolute Beginners" shows the band's first-ever experimentation with soul music, whether that turned out to be a positive influence on Weller's songwriting psyche or not, and "Beat Surrender," the band's grand final single, just absolutely crushes the listener with waves of vocals over an insistent piano melody.
I'm not even sure if this thing can even be found anymore, since it's not in print. You have to have these songs though or else you won't be a cool fan like me, Mr. "I'm An American Who Got Into The Jam Seventeen Years After They Ceased To Exist." If you can, though, pick up Compact Snap! instead of this one because it contains two additional songs ("Dreams Of Children" and the original non-wussified power-trio version of "Smithers-Jones") at the expense of only one song included only on here, the okay-but-nothing-special Gift album track "Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero?"(which is by no means a bad song, but it shouldn't be put on the same compilation as "That's Entertainment" considering that it has pretty much the exact same vocal melody). I only reviewed this one because it's the one I have.
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