The Jam
Sound Affects

THE REVIEW

The early Jam of “In The City” (1977) were a Mod aesthetic group influenced by Punk, still searching for a true attitude. “In The City” sounded raw, although great tracks were not lacking. By the time they released the masterpiece “All Mod Cons,” the winds of austerity from across the Channel cast a dark shadow over the band, a common trait of the entire post-punk scene.

The Jam's last masterpiece is "Sound Affects" (1980), with a more delightfully easy and refined sound compared to three years earlier, an album endowed with an almost infinite range of colors and timbres. Weller’s poetic sarcasm does the rest, infusing the eleven tracks with eruptive creative urgency. It must be said that Weller preferred the cockiness of the punk to the Kinks and the my generation of the Who; nevertheless, the smell of post-punk in these 35 minutes is sharper than anything else. “Pretty Green” is pneumatic and fractured Power pop, “Monday” creates a special feeling with the surroundings and the listener thanks to the repetitive verse Oh baby I'm dreaming of Monday, Oh baby will I see you again. The piece's slightly accentuated dramatic nuances are intriguing and prompt you to play it on repeat 3 or 4 or 10 times. The seductive throb of "But I'm Different Now", with Weller’s guitar more concise than ever and the always precise and careful instrumental interventions demonstrate the brilliance and exquisite geometry of this dazzling pace. The most heart-pounding moment comes with “Set The House Ablaze”. Let us pause for a few more lines before this monument: kneel before its immense guitar opening, the initial martiality implodes in the contagious la-las and the disturbing whistles under the powerful advance of the drums, then finding the indispensable way out in the chorus, after which it plunges into the oppressive gloom of the finale where everything revs up and calls upon chaos so much that Weller's historic composure wavers, and in a rush of emotional tension, he screams "La-la-la" completely and deleteriously hallucinated forever for the ages until the train whistles of the after-bomb silence everything: MARASMA.

And with this, the grandiose opening quartet of the album concludes. “Start" steals the riff from the Beatles' "Taxman" and smashes it on a syncopated guitar, glorifying itself in the contrast between the rhythm section's funk grit and the trio's echoing beat vocal delicacies. Memorable “That’s Entertainment”, unfolded on a soft bed of acoustic guitar. Between a vibrant Mod anthem like “Boy About Town” and an instant classic like “Dream Time”, we realize the stunning sonic cleanup the work is endowed with, a dizzying cleanliness of sound interlocks, like in the small luminous marvel of “The Man In The Corner Shop”, and that memorable “lalalalala” so full of sweet nostalgia that makes it the most crystalline melody of the trio's career. The edgy “Scrapt Away” closes the album, all played on nervous and nagging rhythm, the rhythm section takes everything away doing something very simple and at the same time immense: they hold the tempo.

This album so lacquered and modernist has only the clothing of the revival fashion, made of vintage white shirts with wide-collar Burberry’s, silk ties Resikeio, three-button Bill Blass jackets, six-button double-breasted Christian Dior suits, and perforated leather lace-up shoes Allen-Admonds.