The Jam: Sound Affects - 1980
"It's a cross between Off The Wall and Revolver" - Paul Weller
This was released in late 1980, with The Jam now at the height of their powers. Going Underground went straight to number one the previous March. In summer the lead-off single from this album, the Taxman-influenced Start! did likewise. The band were untouchable now, masters of ex-punk chart pop.
Paul Weller, much in admiration of The Beatles’ Revolver, seemed to want to produce a similar album - sparse, tinny and guitar-driven with some cutting lyrics scattered around for good measure. everything but the Eastern influences. I have to admit that it is a bit of a difficult album to categorise - the old sixties influences are very much to the fore - the afore-mentioned Beatles, The Small Faces and sixties psychedelic pop.
It is not an album that builds on the Jam sound crafted on All Mod Cons and Setting Sons, though, it strips things down. The sound is more minimalist, trebly and succinct and, by the old "side two" there is a bit of a lack of cohesion. This is where it gets a bit patchy, for me. So, back in late 1980, this album was received like the second coming.
My memories of my first few listens at the time are those of a slightly underwhelming nature, and an unwillingness on my part to face up to the fact that I much preferred the previous two offerings. For reassurance, I clung on to that guitar break in Pretty Green, the hooky appeal of Man In The Corner Shop and the magnificent atmosphere of That's Entertainment as great moments to help me overlook other more ordinary songs like the short But I'm Different Now, the vague Dream Time and the throwaway instrumental, Music For The Last Couple.
Anyway, here are those pocketfuls of pretty green in more detail....
The gentle, simply-constructed but charming Monday saw Weller going all romantic, with his clumsy S.E. England accent to the fore - “rainclouds came to cloud my funder” . It's a "th", Paul, not an "f". No matter, though, it's a little-known treasure of a song, its attraction very much in its almost McCartney-esque simplicity. There is also something just so very Weller about it too. "I will never be embarrassed about love again", he sings, harking back to his own blushing reaction to English Rose, on the All Mod Cons album. Then it is on to this breakneck, punky, sub two-minute thrash of But I'm Different Now with its typically Jam “aye-aye-aye” chorus. It's lively and vibrant, but not really anything special, being gone before you've caught your breath. It harks back to the debut album and I Got By In Time, in particular. Despite what I've said, I like it, so there you go.
Next up is Set The House Ablaze, a dense, muffled but hard-hitting anti-fascist put-down. More “la la las” to be found here. Those choruses can sometimes sound a bit "naff" but at other times they seem to fit perfectly - nobody else used them as much as The Jam did. The song has a mysterious, murky and almost claustrophobic feel to it, though, similar to the following year's non-album single, Funeral Pyre or the slightly earlier psychedelic 'b' side to Going Underground, The Dreams Of Children. Weller goes wryly tongue-in-cheek with his amusing "oh what a bastard to get off" line about the subject's boots.
That's Entertainment is a pure Jam classic, isn't it? Written by a semi-drunken Weller late one night in fifteen minutes, sung against a stark acoustic guitar backing, it is a slice of late 70s urban, dark, rain-soaked British life in three minutes. Magnificent stuff. An alternate version exists with Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler on bass and drums which is more powerful but lacks the plaintive bleakness of the original. I love the lines "cuddling a warm and smelling stale perfume" and "paint-splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat". That's just two of them, the song positively overflows with almost pictorial images, gushing out from Weller's beer-addled brain like rain (or piss) down a drain.
Dream Time is an otherwise unremarkable touch of authentic-sounding Beatles-esque sixties psychedelia that revisits In The Crowd's supermarket imagery. It is one that never quite did it for me, although I can't properly explain why. Man In The Corner Shop was another singalong semi-tragic Jam social conscience anthem, highlighting the perennial, age-old conflict between rich and poor and the latter's limited aspirations. There is a stark melodiousness and pathos to the song that is quite captivating. Along with That's Entertainment, it remains one of my favourite cuts from the album. Incidentally, add The Clash's 1979 Lost In The Supermarket to these two and In The Crowd and you have a fair few shop/supermarket-themed songs.
Things recover to end proceedings strongly with both the final track and, before that, Boy About Town, a Small Faces-ish and poppily brassy offering, a catchy and enjoyable short song that highlights the band's new use of a brass section, something that would continue via the Absolute Beginners single to The Gift album.
The dense, brooding and introspective closer, Scrape Away, with its spoken French outro, has become one of my new favourites from the album in later years. Initially, however, it didn't do much for me at all, preferring the more instantly appealing numbers. One's tastes change over the years, however, don't they? The same applies to Set The House Ablaze.
For many, this is considered to be The Jam's best album, rather as many (like myself) prefer The Beatles' Revolver to Sgt. Pepper. I can sort of see why, but the tinny sound and some patchy parts on the album's second side will always place it below both All Mod Cons and Setting Sons for me.
Some quality extras here in Liza Radley and the Beatles cover And Your Bird Can Sing. Either of these could, and possibly should have made it on to the album. The same could have been said for a storming cover of The Small Faces' Get Yourself Together. I guess the presence of a couple of covers would have attracted accusations of having run out of material (which wasn't actually the case).
In May 1981 came the dense, psychedelic-ish grunge of Funeral Pyre which was backed with an appealing, jangly cover of The Who's Disguises.
In October of the same year we saw another change in direction on the brassy, punchy Absolute Beginners, a song that I have never particularly taken to. I didn't quite get what Weller was aiming at with this tinny number urging us all to have "love in our hearts". It was all a bit vaguely hippy. The 'b' side was a great one, though, in the rustic but solid beat of Tales From The Riverbank. It is track full of atmosphere and provided a very early hint as to Weller's solo material that he would put out ten years or so later. There was also a "flexi-disc" giveaway alternate version of the song that has a slightly more percussive ending. The track was also re-written with different lyrics as We've Only Started.
Weller's plaintive No-One In The World was a tender, romantic ballad backed only by guitar while Hey Mister, a short piano-backed number dated, I believe from around 1979. It has an unfinished feel about it and never got beyond the demo stage.
Also from the album's sessions were a convincing, psychedelic-ish cover of The Beatles' Rain and the Madness-ish piano-driven cover of The Kinks' Dead End Street. Perhaps suitably considering their sixties pre-occupations, the band also covered The Kinks' Waterloo Sunset, acceptably. Weller's brief throwaway spoke word bit of fun, Pop Art Poem, was just that, a bit of fun.
