The Very Best Of The Jam

The Very Best Of The Jam - The Jam

Year Released: 1997

Label: Polydor

Year Bought: 1999

Kicking off with 'In The City' – which still sounds just as urgent as it did in 1977 – this collection brings together all of the The Jam's A-sides before Paul Weller broke up the band in 1982.

I remember buying this CD in 1999 with money I had earned from my paper round, and I played it constantly. I knew every lyric, every bass fill from Bruce Foxton, every machine gun snare roll from Rick Buckler.

I was pretty into 70s punk as a teenager, but The Jam appealed more than most as they seemed to look beyond the nihilism.

"What's the point in saying destroy, I want a new life for everywhere," sings Weller on 'All Around The World'.

The Jam's early singles are pretty good, but all feel a bit derivative of 'In The City'. It's not until you get to 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight' that you realise this is a band – and a songwriter – that can deliver something truly special.

The three singles released in 1979 – 'Strange Town', 'When You're Young' and 'Eton Rifles' – are all brilliant, and contain some of my favourite lyrics.

"Tears of rage roll down your face / But still you say 'it's fun'" and "It's so hard to understand, why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam" from 'When You're Young' meant so much to me when I was younger.

Many of these songs were single-only releases, and didn't appear on albums, including the group's first number 1 – 'Going Underground' – and their last two releases: 'The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)' and 'Beat Surrender'. As I've said before, in the days before streaming collections like this could be the only way to hear these songs.

Listening to Weller's songwriting journey is a treat. The Northern Soul inspired 'Town Called Malice', the no-frills of 'That's Entertainment', the pseudo-funk of 'Precious' – these are all Weller trying on different hats to see which one fits best. It would, of course, be a constant theme for the Changingman.

The Jam really were fantastic. This singles collection should be on the national curriculum. What a catalyst they turned out to be.

10/10

Comments

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored. And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...

The Bends - Radiohead

Year Released: 1995 Label: Parlophone Year Bought: 2000 Some records I'm going back to for the first time in a while. Others, like 'The Bends', are still in my regular rotation. What to say about this album? The crashing piano chords of opening track 'Planet Telex' give an immediate indication that this is not the same band that made 'Pablo Honey'. The album is a quantum leap from that record, which – while it has its fans, including me – is by-and-large the sound of just another guitar band. 'The Bends' is different. From the slowing-down-time intro of the title track, to the how-high-can-you-go guitars on 'Just', the album constantly delights. 'Fake Plastic Trees' is a magisterial effort, while 'Black Star' contains one of the great opening lines: "I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown, well, what am I to do?" The recording process for this record was inspired by seeing Jeff Buck...

NME Awards 2004 - Various Artists

Released: 2004 Label: NME When I bought: 2004 In ye olde days before streaming, and even YouTube, it wasn't possible to hear within a matter of moments pretty much every song ever released. Therefore, compilations like this by the NME actually had a degree of value. Take 'Paperbag Writer' by Radiohead, a b-side from 'There There', the lead single from 2003's Hail to the Thief. I bought the album but not the single, so I'd never heard this tune. It's a brilliant track, with its electronic shuffle beat and muffled vocals making it sound like a left over from Kid A, or the starting point for Thom Yorke's debut solo album which would be released the following year. Likewise, 'See You Soon' by Coldplay. A true delight from a 1999 EP, with delicate guitar playing, scarce production, and honest vocal delivery. It's a reminder that once upon a time Chris Martin et al were able to operate with that oft-neglected trait: restraint. As a snapshot o...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog