Product Description

This two-disc retrospective of the Beatles and Kinks influenced punk-pop trio was released to celebrate the band's 25thanniversary. All the singles are included alongside tracks from their six studio albums. 'The Sound Of The Jam' supercedes 1997's 'The Very Best Of...' as it contains five extra tracks.

Track Listing

1. In The City
2. Away From The Numbers
3. The Modern World
4. David Watts
5. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
6. It's Too Bad
7. To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time)
8. Mr. Clean
9. English Rose
10. The Butterfly Collector
11. The Eton Rifles
12. Private Hell
13. Thick As Thieves
14. Smithers-Jones
15. Saturday's Kids
16. Going Underground
17. Start!
18. Liza Radley
19. Pretty Green
20. Boy About Town
21. That's Entertainment
22. Tales From The Riverbank
23. Town Called Malice
24. Ghosts
25. Carnation
26. Beat Surrender

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27230 in Music
• Released on: 2002-05-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Although the disappointingly bland sleevenotes from The Jam's A&R manager Dennis Munday rather give away the lack of involvement of Messrs Weller, Foxton and Buckler, this 26-track Woking Wonders best of, The Sound of the Jam, is tough to argue with. Indeed, unless you want to invest in the five-CD Direction Reaction Creation boxed set, this 25th anniversary collection is the best Jam primer released thus far.

The Sound Of... heads chronologically from the debut "In The City" single to farewell one-off "Beat Surrender", by way of the most notable chart hits and a sprinkling of classic album tracks. Although a fan may quibble with the exclusion of peak period singles "All Around The World", "Strange Town" and "When You're Young", and the presence of the misanthropic "Mr Clean" and a disappointing unreleased version of "That's Entertainment", what strikes anew is the taut energy of the trio's playing, the bitter bile of Paul Weller's lyrical themes, and the sophisticated, hook-packed update of Britbeat from one so young (Weller was still only 24 when he split the biggest band in Britain in 1982). Twenty years later, The Jam still show up the lack of courage and relevance in current British pop. --Garry Mulholland

Customer Reviews

The best of the Jam
This has all of the best Jam tracks on and is a brilliant album to have as it has got a lot of tracks all of which are great. Another great rock compilation.

Excellent compilation...but still lacking some of my favourites
As yet another middle-aged Jam fan still trying to get around to replacing all my old vinyl, I can tell you that this CD set is a very good compilation indeed. However, I also purchased Snap!, another Jam compilation CD. If you're an older Jam 'fan' then I would recommend that you buy Snap! as well The Sound of the Jam...that's if you really want a good 'fix' of the Jam; both of these albums really are absolutely necessary.

Tracks NOT on Sound of the Jam but on Snap!:

All Around The World; News Of The World; Billy Hunt; 'A' Bomb in Wardour Street; Strange Town; When You're Young; Dreams Of Children; Man In The Corner Shop; Funeral Pyre; Absolute Beginners; Precious; The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow)

Tracks NOT on Snap! but on Sound of the Jam:

It's Too Bad; To Be Someone; Private Hell; Saturdays Kids; Liza Radley; Pretty Green; Boy About Town; Ghosts; Carnation

By buying both compilations (and they are available at silly prices) you get 21 more tracks. Now of the 17 tracks that are on both albums 4 are different versions. For example, on Snap! Eton Rifles is 30 seconds longer than the track on The Sound of The Jam (mostly the ending is different and longer and accounts for most of the extra time). That's Entertainment and Start on Snap! are 21 seconds and 14 seconds longer, respectively, than on TSOTJ, and Tales From The Riverbank on Snap! is 10 seconds shorter than on the TSOTJ offering. So a bit of variety there IOW.

Anyhow, great on it's own, better with the Snap! compilation as well.

I must say though, that after listening to these compilation albums, I get a great yearning to actually buy the original albums again: In the City (1977), This Is the Modern World (1977), All Mod Cons (1978), Setting Sons(1979) Sound Affects, (1980), and The Gift (1982) are all excellent albums IMO - some people didn't like The Gift, but I did. Okay, not as strong as the others, but I always liked the way the album opened with Happy Together, and then followed by Ghost. Sadly, Happy together isn't on the compilations.

Oh, and finally, if you had the original Snap! album on vinyl with the extra EP (had 4 songs on it) you still won't find those extra songs on any of these compilations. Shame really.

Good Music but lacking 3 classics
This Cd shows the quality of the jams songwritng and it is phonominal. the reason i din't give this 5 stars was because of the omission of all around the world, strange town and when you're young. this shows part of why paul weller got his outstanding contribution to music award at this years brits.