The Jam - Setting Sons (late 1979 - fourth album)
The scene is the late 1970s. British rock/pop music is catalysing the 'new-wave' wave that would follow several years of increasingly predictable and formulaic sub-genres of rock - progressive, heavy/metal, glam, etc. The American led but UK owned rebellion that exploded in 1976 as Punk msSanifested itself abruptly and blazed bright, but short. Disco was hovering awkwardly somewhere in the background like a shy young thing who's not quite yet out of the closet - and all things musical got slightly confused for a short while...
In the midst of this confusion there was a genuine curiosity and, even, trepidation as to what would come next. And into that very space stepped Paul Weller with his first band.
The Jam's first two albums, 'In The City' and, 'This Is The Modern World' had been released more or less one straight after the other in 1977 - the first had created great excitement whilst the second suffered slightly from 'difficult second album syndrome'. More time was taken over the release of the third album, 'All Mod Cons', and that patience was rewarded as the band consolidated their small, dedicated, fan-base who saw something in Weller and his band that might be what they were looking for at the end of the seventies, as 'punk' died and 'rock' floundered. The interest in, and acclaim for, singles like 'Strange Town' and 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - (my favourite Jam song and a genuine top ten of all time) had paved the way and the hungry public were curious for something bigger.
Then, in '79, they dropped the 'Eton Rifles' single and followed it a couple of weeks later with the 'Setting Sons' album. And all three of them, the single, the band and their album completely blew up. At this stage I was ten years old - I had very recently been given my first (mono) radio/tape-recorder. I had started following the Top 40 chart on Radio 1 and I loved 'Geno' by Dexy's Midnight Runners. And then I heard 'Eton Rifles'.
I can't, and therefore won't, pretend that I was a HUGE Jam fan from that point on. I loved Eton Rifles from first listen but I was ten years old and it took another four or five years - by which time the band were long gone - before I'd get to hear the 'Setting Sons' album in full...
The thing about the album is, the MAIN thing about the album - apart from the intensity of the music and the 'tightness' of The Jam as a musical band, - is Paul Weller's lyrics. The bloke was 20 years old when most of the songs were written and the album recorded. And for a 20 year old his lyrics are, I believe, extraordinary. Just listen closely to 'Girl On the Phone', (rant against proto-celebrity-stalking-culture); 'Thick As Thieves', (lament for lost innocence of childhood friendships); 'Private Hell', (scathingly harsh treatment of the banality of meaningless suburban married life, written from the Prozac fuelled house-wife's point of view); 'Little Boy Soldiers', (polemic ditty about futility of political war); 'Smithers-Jones' (brilliantly harsh critique of the culture behind London's then rapidly expanding commuter-belt) - and that's only half the album covered...
I haven't not mentioned the other tracks 'cos their lyrics are any weaker - I just want to leave a few to discover for yourselves upon (what I imagine to be a) first listen.
Plus the album finishes on 'Heatwave' - the Jam's first recorded cover version and the first indication that Paul Weller's future would encompass a mellower, blacker, more soulful, r'n'b influenced tone.
Ten songs. Not a single bland one, let alone bad one. A properly great album and I commend it to you.
S
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