Product Description

While other first-generation British punk bands embraced art and nihilism, the Jam offered working-class soul--solid, honest rhythms that were a ray of hope to the country's recession-racked youth. SOUND AFFECTS was released at the height of the Jam's popularity, and found frontman Paul Weller at his songwriting peak. Equally as influenced by Motown as by punk, Weller's songs defy categorisation. While "Start!" (a No. 1 hit in England) is as upbeat as the best James Brown, the driving instrumentation of "Set The House Ablaze", "Monday" and "Boy About Town" bears comparison to the the early Who. There are even ska echoes on "Music For The Last Couple".
But the most enduring quality of these songs is their humanism. Even through Weller's early flirtation with Toryism,his deep concern for Britain's dispossessed was evident. "That's Entertainment" and "Man In The Corner Shop" speak of an England that everyone, from scooter-gangs to businessmen, can relate to. It was this everyman appeal, this boy-next-door earnestness, that a generation of British youth rallied around.

Track Listing

1. Pretty Green
2. Monday
3. But I'm Different Now
4. Set The House Ablaze
5. Start!
6. That's Entertainment
7. Dream Time
8. Man In The Corner Shop
9. Music For The Last Couple
10. Boy About Town
11. Scrape Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2251 in Music
• Released on: 1997-08-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 35 minutes

Customer Reviews

Really Affecting
So, this is the penultimate album by The Jam. Of course it's fantastic, in my opinion it's their best. In eschewing the rather more slightly bombastic elements of the overall miraculous "Setting Sons" LP from the previous year The Jam here create an aural landscape which refines their obsessive opinions on English life.

It should be said that this album is one of the many miletones in (what is commonly known) as post-punk. Although the most impressive moments come from Paul Weller's nagging realisation that The Jam need to stay one step ahead of any prevailing fashions.

A few random highlights include the sub-funk bassline of the opener "Pretty Green", & the startingly brilliant "Set The House Ablaze" wherein Weller attempts & succeeds in cutting through the post-punk fog while slyly crafting a classic state-of-the nation pop song.

Talking of state-of-the-nation pop songs "That's Entertainment" rings as true for 1980 as it does for 2008. It's surely no coincidence that it's one of Morrissey's more succesful cover versions.

Apart from the all too true feel of the above mentioned songs special mention must be made of "Dream Time" (Joy Division with a shred of optimism?), the closing grind of "Scrape Away" & my own personal favourite "Music For The Last Couple" which sounds like Krautrock filtered through a very English sensibility.

To put it bluntly this is one of those forever classic albums that weirdly consistently get overlooked..... You really should become familiar with it's Wintry charms now.

The last in a formidable hat-trick of Jam albums
Described as a cross between Off the Wall: Remastered and Revolver by Paul Weller the Jams fifth studio album is also the last in a formidable trio of albums starting with All Mod Cons and continuing with the blistering Setting Sons. Weller also considers it the bands finest album and listening to it again its difficult to argue with him .....though i will because i prefer Setting Sons buts that a purely subjective thing as much to do with my history as well as any musical connotations.
Released in 1980 Sound Affects cover was a clever pastiche of the Sound Effects records produced by the BBC during the 1970,s . It also heralded a return to the more pop orientated sound of All Mod Cons after the angry punk edged Setting Sons. The music also has classic British psychedelic undertones so redolent of the 1960,s sound of The Kinks, The Who and The Beatles but also brings in elements of the burgeoning post punk movement . All this is melded together well by producers Chris Parry and Vic Coppersmith-Heaven but as usual its the quality of the songs that make the album special.
"Pretty Green" ( the record label Polydor wanted this as the first single off the album but Weller opted for "Start") kicks off with a deceptively simple thrumming Foxton bass line and Weller's trebly stabs of guitar. The lines "this is the pretty green / this is society " have never seemed more apt than they do now. The woozy ruminative "Monday" is followed by the static electricity chords of "But Im Different Now". "Start" is a good song but it is undoubtedly true that the bass line is a rip-off of the Beatles "Taxman" .The acoustic "That Entertainment" is lyrically one of Weller's finest moments and again a prescient view of modern day living though i would hazard a guess that if he were to write a modern version it would be even bleaker . It would be interesting to hear how the former "Red Wedge" member ( Weller infamously also aligned himself with the Tories at one point) views Britain after 10 years of New Labour.
"Dreamtime" is the most direct in the use of psychedelia though the coagulated chords of "Scrape Away" is also draped with overt psychedelic tones while the horn fuelled "Boy About Town" drops broad hints about the more soulful direction the band would take for their next album The Gift. "The Man In The Corner Shop " is a lovely wistful number full of empathy for it,s subjects and even the instrumental ( credited to the whole band) is a cracking tune with neat interplay between the bass and guitar and a tangible ska influence.
Sound Affects is a not just a great album but a great Jam album and that lifts it onto another level all together. Today's whelps could only dream of making an album as great as this. The fact it,s the third such triumph in a row only confirms further , if indeed it really needs confirming , what a special band The Jam were.

one of the best
one of my personal faves this album,and in my opinion when the jam"sound" began,the jam were not just a singles band as jam fans loved the album tracks just as much,polydor wanted pretty green released as the single from this album,but paul and producer vic heaven insisted on"start" which in turn gave the band their second number one,thats entertainment was also released as an import single as it did so well in holland and charted high in the uk,with a new era of jam fans coming along this album is a good place to start,besides the two tracks mentioned above theres some hidden gems on here,the brilliant"man in the corner shop.but im different now,boy about town and set the house ablaze stand up to the test of time and should have been hits in thier own right.buy this album you'll not regret it.