The Jam [The Sound Of The Jam]
I got interested in The Jam when i heard The Eton Rifles on the radio, however even though i bought a few vinyl 45 singles, i never delved into an album until much later, and i soon found out that the best way of a disc representing The Jam was in a compilation album, i've always felt that The Jam have a handful of great songs, but then quickly fall away to 'filler', but in listening to this disc today, i find some of the lesser liked tracks to be quite good, probably 'Ghosts' is a good representation of this, a nice disc full of social observation and working class feelings.
The Jam were formed in Woking in the late Seventies, and split up at the end of 1982, they were at the top of their game for five years cruising the singles and album charts, Paul Weller was the brainbox behind the band, being lead singer / songwriter, this compilation brings together a one disc collection of their best material, released in 2002, the front cover [photo by Pennie Smith] is fantastic, a punchy black and white shot, with lettering in shocking pink across the front in a band, the strong colour is at odds with the colourless photo, but these opposites really make a visual statement, The Jam dressed up in their Mod attire, a striped blazer, snake scarf, tartan trousers, a cravat?, they were smart, not like their Punk cousins who wore ripped jeans an T shirts, Bruce Foxton at the front frames the piece nicely, with his light Jacket and elbows out, but Weller has a scowl on his face, a great visual statement.
The tracks that i liked the best were 3, 5 & 11, and here's a little synopsis of each,
3 The Modern World - Nice and Punky, with an underlying anger in the voice, especially on the words 'nothing / noffing' [0:16 & 0:54], i like the harmony when Bruce Foxton sings [0:33-0:42], the track really explodes into anger when Weller shouts 'this is the modern world!' [1:14-1:30], and the hard guitar instrumental afterwards, and further along the line 'i don't give two fucks about your review' [1:48-1:51], the outro is excellent, 'this is, this is, this is' [2:05-2:10].
5 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - Probably my favourite Jam song, another song of violence, starts of with a recording of an approaching tube train, and a little girls voice 'the train's coming', or something like that, i like the way that the Drummer Rick Buckler shimmers the cymbals [0:20-0:42], something i haven't noticed before, but really great, Weller is superb in his visualizations, 'Hey boy, have you got ant money?' [1:45-1:49] the gruffness on 'money' is telling, 'they smelt of pubs and wormwood scrubs, and too many right wing meetings' [2:22-2:29], nice rhyming, it's in the third verse where it's sheer genius 'the last thing that i saw, as i lay there on the floor, was Jesus saves by an Atheist nutter, and a British Rail poster read, have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today' [3:05-3:16] now that's poetry in the highest sense of the art, the reference to the 'Atheist nutter' is a gem, one thing i've never noticed before is the words 'i... thought about my wife, cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me' [3:16-3:22], sounds like they're going round his house to do his woman violence too, an unsettling but poignant song, really meaningful.
11 The Eton Rifles -
3 The Modern World - Nice and Punky, with an underlying anger in the voice, especially on the words 'nothing / noffing' [0:16 & 0:54], i like the harmony when Bruce Foxton sings [0:33-0:42], the track really explodes into anger when Weller shouts 'this is the modern world!' [1:14-1:30], and the hard guitar instrumental afterwards, and further along the line 'i don't give two fucks about your review' [1:48-1:51], the outro is excellent, 'this is, this is, this is' [2:05-2:10].
5 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - Probably my favourite Jam song, another song of violence, starts of with a recording of an approaching tube train, and a little girls voice 'the train's coming', or something like that, i like the way that the Drummer Rick Buckler shimmers the cymbals [0:20-0:42], something i haven't noticed before, but really great, Weller is superb in his visualizations, 'Hey boy, have you got ant money?' [1:45-1:49] the gruffness on 'money' is telling, 'they smelt of pubs and wormwood scrubs, and too many right wing meetings' [2:22-2:29], nice rhyming, it's in the third verse where it's sheer genius 'the last thing that i saw, as i lay there on the floor, was Jesus saves by an Atheist nutter, and a British Rail poster read, have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today' [3:05-3:16] now that's poetry in the highest sense of the art, the reference to the 'Atheist nutter' is a gem, one thing i've never noticed before is the words 'i... thought about my wife, cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me' [3:16-3:22], sounds like they're going round his house to do his woman violence too, an unsettling but poignant song, really meaningful.
11 The Eton Rifles -
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