IN THE CITY or ALL MOD CONS?
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
...or do you seriously think that This Is The Modern World son 'em both?Seriously, of the four Jam albums I own, although I like 'em all, I have a preference for the punk-as-fuck In The City, even though it sounds a lot rawer than the rest of their output...
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In the city there's a thousand things I want to say to you
my response to the Clash thread, I'm going with All Mod Cons
just because it shreds beynd belief. Really, though, all of their
first 3 albums are killer. "All Around the World" on Modern World
may be my favorite song of theirs ...
I'm surprised that you heard a Jam song on mainstream US radio AT ALL.
yes and its on the corny JACK FM format which is even funnier.
only slightly over Setting Sons
Duh!
SA > AMC > IC > SS
SA = best songs
AMC = most British
IC = most punk
SS = ruined potential
which is, quite honestly, probably their best album.
"Well, I haven???t heard [This Is the Modern World] for 25 years, but I remember it as being pretty fuckin' awful." ~Paul Weller
Well, it IS rather ordinary compared to what came before & what came after. And the last thing this world needs is ANOTHER version of "In The Midnight Hour."
I like it...it was the first Jam LP I ever got...played it regularly...but I can't see putting it ahead of In The City, All Mod Cons or Setting Sons. (I don't have the other Jam elpees.)
Uh, yeah, and what does he say about the rest of his Jam material?
I saw him live solo around 1992 or so, and he played exactly one Jam
song, and that was "Man in the Corner Shop" - the crowd had dutifully
applauded all his solo stuff to that point, and when he hit the first
note of this rather staid and lesser-known Jam track, the entire place
jumped to their feet, applauding, cheering and singing along to the entire
song. When it ended, he said "here's a new one" ... they all sat back down
and stayed there until the encore of "Walls Come Tumbling Down."
The last person you want to ask about the Jam is Paul Weller.
Look, I was and am a hardcore Jam fan. If I had to keep one album,
it would probably be In the City for a number of reasons, most of
which involve "Away From the Numbers" ... but Modern World gets shit
on by Jam fans all the time, and it's really kind of bullshit when you look
at the songs on that record.
Shit is classic. "Midnight Hour" or no "Midnight Hour."
All Mod Cons.
As per the Clash thread, I love the rawness of the first album, but I have a preference the musical growth that's evident in the third. What you need to bear in mind about all these bands, particularly in '76/'77, is that they were constantly dismissed as being unable to play, or only getting on in the first place because punk was "fashionable". It was therefore kinda satisfying, as a fan of both the Clash and the Jam, to see them transcend their earlier limitations and develop a bit more light and shade without completely sacrificing the energy and directness that made them so appealing at the time.
This is The Modern World kinda sucks though. A few good songs, but it was rushed and sounds like it.
IC, TIMW: Weller searching for a voice
AMC : finds it
SS: asserts it
SA: bored with it, already thinking SC.
also IMO SS is a top five album, any genre.
AMC is good but I'll skip tracks off that, whereas SS must be played throughout.
And still no better 'rock' cover of a soul song than 'Heatwave' to these ears.
Kill if you must.
Next: a Damned thread that doesn't include Machine Gun Etiquette.....
Weller's softened his attitude towards his old Jam material these days. He's been playing "A Town Called Malice" in his live shows for a while now. He avoided it for a long time, simply because the Jam were so huge in the UK that it became a bit of a millstone for him. Also, I think he resented the fact that so much criticism of the hugely-underrated Style Council seemed to be that they weren't the Jam, and that Weller had sold out by turning his guitar down and experimenting with other musical forms like soul, jazz and latin. As he's got older, he seems to have come to terms with the fact that it's a significant part of what's a pretty impressive body of work overall.
Returning to "Modern World", this must be a US/UK configuration thing again, because "All Around The World" was 45-only up until "Snap" (ditto "News Of The World"), but the UK album would have been a lot stronger if it had included both those songs. Really, there's only the title track, "Here Comes The Weekend" and "Tonight At Noon" that I can still listen to on that record. Both the Foxton songs are stinkers, imho.
Anybody see "From the Jam" the Paul Weller-less Jam touring around?
I wanted to go until I found out PW wasn't involved.
No, but it was pretty cool when Bruce Foxton was touring
with Stiff Little Fingers and they would do "Smithers Jones"
in each set. My boys and I would just chant "BRUUUUUUUUUCE"
over and over again between songs.
Hands down for me. I'm not a huge fan, though, and when they lost heir punk edge, they lost me.
don't sleep on The Gift...
I enjoyed reading this eveidence of how strongly you feel about this music.