Track Listing

1. Girl On The Phone
2. Thick As Thieves
3. Private Hell
4. Little Boy Soldiers
5. Wasteland
6. Burning Sky
7. Smithers-Jones
8. Saturday's Kids
9. The Eton Rifles
10. Heatwave

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5314 in Music
• Released on: 1997-08-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 33 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The preceding album, All Mod Cons, had already proved there was more to The Jam than just being Mod revivalists, but it was Setting Sons that established Weller as a songwriting force to be reckoned with. The lead-off single "Eton Rifles" was Weller's most confident effort to date--a scathing look at class divisions in Thatcher's Britain. Originally planned as a concept album--The Jam's equivalent of The Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society--only fragments ("Little Boy Soldiers", "Wasteland") of this original vision survived, and the finished album centred on The Jam's customary guitar, bass and drums, although enhanced by fuller arrangements and production. The nostalgic "Saturday's Kids" is one of the highlights, and the album concludes with a breezy thrash through "Heat Wave". Fondly remembered as a singles band, Setting Sons is proof that The Jam also made some great albums. --Patrick Humphries

CD Description
Britain's a funny place, but not always in the literal sense. While apparently placid on the surface, in reality England has always had issues with class, race, and socio-political turmoil. In 1980 Margaret Thatcher had taken power as Prime Minister, and the youth culture that had usually reserved its disdain for the dominant Labour party had a compelling new target. Not so coincidentally, in 1980 The Jam released SETTING SONS, their strongest and most political album to date.
If The Jam's first three albums are a tribute to the resiliency of British working class youth, SETTING SONS is a call to arms. In the context of politically informed songs such as "Eton Rifles'" and "Burning Sky", even a cover of theMotown chestnut "Heatwave" seems to take on political connotations. The albums centrepiece, the haunting mini-epic "Little Boy Soldiers" leaves no doubt as to the intensity of Weller's ire, with its sarcastic references to shooting to killfor "Queen and country", and lambasting of United States support for Thatcher ("God's on our side and so is Washington"). Luckily the usual Weller hooks are there as well, so it'ssafe to hum along even without knowing what the fuss is allabout.

Customer Reviews

Spitting snarling perceptive 1979 gem. The Jams best.
There I was watching "The Long Firm" on T.V. when at the end of the episode on came The Jams "Thick as Thieves" and it got me thinking. "Y, know, I haven't listened to "Setting Sons" since the Jam split up, over twenty years ago."(I was bitterly upset, and have never really forgiven Weller, especially since most of his output since has been dire) So guess what? I did, and cover me in glass and use me as a paperweight it's even better than I remember it. I always thought it was the bands best album, but time had diminished the albums erudite righteous anger and the sheer melodic power of the songs. "Setting Sons "is a flawless series of snorting rock/pop songs cloaked in barbed wire. A spitting snarling masterpiece.
Musically its bog standard, guitar, bass, drums -with the exception of the orchestral "Smithers Jones"- yet Bruce Foxton and Rick Butler are such a dynamic rhythm section that the songs transcend these constraints and like that other brilliant three piece Husker Du achieve a lacerating organic vigour. A lonely recorder trills in the background on "Wasteland" to add a touch of poignancy.
Lyrically it's a definite step up from "In the City" and "Modern World" and taken on a contemporary level is amazingly perspicacious. "Burning Sky" laments the onset of big business and commercialisation, "Private Hell" chronicles one person's mental disintegration under the daily grind while "Wasteland" and "Saturdays Kids" sees Weller attack urban decay, ennui and the paucity of hope and choice for a generation. Something that was to become even more acute as this album was released in 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. "Eton Rifles "wittily sends up the class struggle, and "Little Boy Soldiers" is more pertinent than ever given events in Iraq. Foxtons "Smithers Jones" rues the plight of being a wage slave with some sympathy for its rather sad protaganist."Girl on the Phone "is a rather silly ditty about obsession, but is set to an infectious scalpel sharp riff and given recent stalker cases isn't as daft as it may seem. The cover of "Heatwave" reveals Weller's love of soul, and is a decent skirmishing version.
The Jams three middle albums, "All Mod Cons" before this, and "Sound Affects" after are all superb, but taken as a complete work this, while not as diverse, is the best of the lot. Essential stuff, now more than ever.

The sons never set!
I first heard this album in 1979 when at University shortly after its release as a flatmate of my girlfriend had a copy I was a fan of the Jam at the time but I was rather impoverished at the time and wasn't going to buy it on spec. I immediately went and bought my own copy even though it stretched my overdraft to the limit.

But then again what is money compared to the genius of the songs on this album tracks such as "Eton Rifles" "Girl on the Phone" "Little Boy Soldiers" "Private Hell" "Smithers-Jones" "Saturday's Kids" in fact I could name all the tracks as having some relevance to life in general in the 1970's and for me during my time at University. Needless to say as soon as the Jam toured in Bristol I was straight there risking being spat on to hear them live, which is a pleasure which remains at the forefront of my concert going memory.

BUY it now!

The Jam cement their place as the most exciting band of the time.
This album released in 1979 when Paul Weller was a mere 22 years old was originally intended to be a concept album with a common theme running through it, that of putting away the childish and nostalgic things in life in favour of growing up and embracing the corporate world. Naturally, those who are familiar with Weller's writing will know that he laments the tendency to do this and his English nostalgia is one of his most notorious features. Some of the tracks on this album, such as Burning Sky, Thick as Thieves, The Eton Rifles and Wasteland are written in this mould and each comments upon this theme in some way. Legend has it that Weller intended the whole album to reflect this theme but he ran out of time and material and consequently filled the rest of the album with other tracks, many of which were essentially made up on the spot by Weller building upon bass and drum jams by Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler. The result of this are the inclusion of tracks such as Girl on the Phone, Private Hell, Saturday's Kids and Little Boy Soldiers which do not follow the same theme as the others. Knowing Weller's admiration for the Beatles and given that their Sgt Peppers album was originally intended as a concept album but ened up only half complete this may have been a deliberate emulation.

Nevertheless, the album is exquisite. The bass driven power of the harmonies show that Bruce Foxton was an essential contributor to the Jam sound and gone is the brash angst usually associated with bands of the late 70s, instead it is replaced by controlled guitar playing which loses none of the power but which shows Weller's emerging maturity as a player, loud and harsh is not necessarily better.

The real joy of the album however and what makes it stand head and shoulders above the other Jam albums are the lyrics. They are superb. Weller shows that even at such a young age he was a highly accomplished poet. The words of Thick as Thieves have been identified by the poet Simon Armitage as an exquisite example of British poetry, and quite righly so...

"We stole the love from young girls in ivory towers
We stole autumn leaves and summer showers
We stole the silent wind that says you are free
We stole everything that we could see...
We stole the burning sun in the open sky
We stole the twinkling stars in the black night
We stole the greenbelt fields that made us believe
We stole everything that we could see
But something came along and changed our minds
I don't know what and I don't know why
But we seemed to grow up in a flash of time
And we watched out ideals helplessly unwind..."

delightful!!!