All Mod Cons [Remastered] - Jam (The) > Reviews > A genuine classic with a few extras

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	A bit of pop history repackaged well
Disadvantages:	The extras are probably for the fan only

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The remastered deluxe edition with bonus DVD is a great addition for the Jam fan's collection.

The original album stands on it's own merits as one of the pivotal works of the post punk/new wave movement, with power, belief and well crafted songs, coming together and defining for the first time The Jam sound.

The album opens with a searing comment on the music scene of the day with the title track, an honest commentary on the hangers on and false cheerleaders that exploit young artists' naivety and then fail to support them in tougher times. All of this backed with a trademark classic thumping bass and jagged guitar sound.

This segues neatly into the second track, To Be Someone (Didn't We Have A Nice Time), a slightly gentler approach but still full of emotion, evoking a fallen star looking back on his finished career. Combined with the title track, it's a heavyweight opening that made you wonder what the band thought of their chances of making it.

The aggressive Mr Clean is not to everyone's taste but is a crisp and melodic take on the disillusioned working class youth's view of the successful middle classes.

The Jam cover of the Kinks' David Watts follows and for me evokes memories of pogoing and punching the air at youth discos. Its fun, and is what pop music used to be before it was highjacked by carefully assembled groups of stage school graduates.

I always found the gentle acoustic ballad English Rose a surprise inclusion, and while I still find it out of place amongst their catalogue, it is well loved and the bonus DVD includes recent footage of Paul Weller playing the number. For those unfamiliar, I think the track is currently being used for British Tourism adverts.

In The Crowd is a classic Jam track, and symbolic of their progression to include wider themes in their music such as sense of self and identity. It's well documented that for a band that placed such emphasis on individuality of expression and thought, there was a degree of contradiction in their following amongst the young mod revivalists with their uniform dress and attitudes. Place this track against the output of some their contempories and it's stunning.

Billy Hunt is a return to the fast guitar based sound that initially made their name. Again, the Britishness of the story and lyrics is typical of the songwriting approach that made the Jam the most popular British band of their time.

It's Too Bad appears to be influenced by the Beatles, and that's clearly no bad thing. It benefits from an infectious bass and poppier guitars than the preceding track, and is really catchy.

Fly and Place I Love are two tracks I personally view as weaker than the rest of the album, the first another acoustic track but weaker than English Rose, and the second a little formulaic amongst the cutting edge found elsewhere on the album.

A Bomb In Wardour Street and Down In The Tube Station At Midnight are pretty well known by virtue of being singlea from the album. Big chunks of aggression here as both tracks deal with the spectre of city violence, the first as was becoming prevalent in clubland. The second, one of my favourite Jam tracks, tells the story of a man attacked on the tube and combines all that was great about the band at that time, telling a relevant and moving story through pointed lyrics and music that perfectly evoked the experience of the main character. Anyone who's gone a bit cold having heard the closing time crowd arrive for the last train/tube/bus stop will relate to this. Both the album and single versions are on this edition.

As a band that worked even better live in my opinion, the addition of the demo versions of many of these tracks is excellent, and another link into their songwriting methods. This deluxe version also includes a few B sides from the time to complete the picture of where the band were musically, including a cover of the Who's So Sad About Us.

If you are in my age range, you'll probably already know how important the Jam were. If anyone else wants an insight into why their fans are so passionate about them, this is a great place to start.

Whilst the Jam's own influences are on display here, you will definitely see how their legacy has passed down into many charting acts today. And fans of Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, possibly even Franz Ferdinand will probably like this.