All Mod Cons [Vinyl]

The Jam | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (January 13, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polydor / Umgd
• ASIN: B001I0N8T6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,881 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. All Mod Cons

2. To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)

3. Mr. Clean

4. David Watts

5. English Rose

6. In the Crowd

7. Billy Hunt

8. It's Too Bad

9. Fly

10. The Place I Love

11. 'A' Bomb in Wardour Street

12. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

More interested in social commentary than political confrontation, the Jam breathed some sophistication into the British punk movement. The young Paul Weller mixed punk anger with 1960s mod guitar flash, a combination that set the Jam apart from their contemporaries. Cynical but never abrasive, the songs on All Mod Cons are short and pointed. Weller displays an increasingly assured touch on wistful ballads and, by reaching into the soul copybook to embellish "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight," gives a hint of the direction the Jam would take on subsequent albums. --Ben Clancy

Product Description

2007 UK reissue of The Jam's 1978 album comes packaged in a miniature LP sleeve. All Mod Cons was The Jam's 'make or break' third album, which fortunately became their biggest seller to date while also kickstarting the underground Mod movement and making them superstars in Europe. 12 tracks including 'Down In The Tubestation At Midnight', 'English Rose', 'To Be Someone' and more. Polydor. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Their Most Important, but Not Their Best, November 15, 2006

By 

Blake Maddux (Arlington, MA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: All Mod Cons (Audio CD)

I have always been a bit bothered by the fact that 1978's All Mod Cons is considered by many to be The Jam's best record. If nothing else, this misjudgement steals the thunder of their actual best record, 1979's Setting Sons. AMC is simply not consistently impressive enough to qualify for this distinction. Granted, it was the record that sprung the band back to life after the critically and commercially lackluster This Is the Modern World. Thus, it allowed them to secure a legacy with even greater follow-ups. So while I agree that AMC was the most important album of The Jam's career, it only consistently pretty to really good, and indisputably great in only one case.

The trio of songs that open All Mod Cons includes the vitriolic title track, with verses that stumble over themselves as the guitar, bass, and drums stomp along in unison. "To Be Someone" seamlessly goes from dreams of stardom, to its realization (including guitar-shaped pools and cocaine), to its disappearance, all in the course of 2-1/2 minutes: "And the bread I spend is like my fame - its quickly diminished". Thankfully, Jam leader Paul Weller doesn't sound the least bit glib until "Mr. Clean", one of the weakest spots on the record. It's not that great of a song to begin with, but it is also unjustifiably venomous toward the square community. (Not everyone can be a cool, rich, devil-may-care rock star like you, Paul.)

The record picks up slowly but very surely after this. "David Watts", sung by bassist Bruce Foxton, is too faithful to the original version to be any sort of revelation, but it is enjoyable for the very same reason. It is also a subtle indication that Weller's main influence for the time being would be Ray Davies, not Pete Townshend. Still, the jaunty pop tune "It's Too Bad" - also a very enjoyable but not revelatory song - sounds like a re-write of The Who's "So Sad About Us", which The Jam also covered. (The more you get to know The Jam, implicit and explicit homages to The Who abound. For example, not only did The Jam cover a few Who songs, they also covered songs that The Who themselves covered, like "Heat Wave" and "Batman".) Weller also tosses in a few beautiful and affecting acoustic love songs, "English Rose" - the original name and inspiration for the band that would become The Stone Roses - and "Fly". Finally, there is the impassioned manifesto "In The Crowd", which is part of Weller's live show to this day, the punky "Billy Hunt", and the Clash-y, staccato "A-Bomb in Wardour Street".

AMC closes with a mini-mini-opera, the frightening hate crime tale "Down In the Tube Station at Midnight". This is one of Weller's two or three finest songwriting moments. His conviction is genuine, the music is sparse but rock solid (with Foxton's bass mimicing menacing footsteps), and the lyrical imagery is vivid from start to finish, with brilliant lyrics like "They smelt of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right-wing meetings". Weller, showing a keen ability to read the news one day and recreate it in song the next, comes so completely into his own on this song that it squashes all claims that he was a Pete Townshend wannabe or a punk poseur, which were baseless to begin with. (But I must say that he sings with such force that his English accent, which is perfect for The Jam's blend of punk/pop/mod-rock, might sound a bit unintelligible to American ears.)

The Jam's All Mod Cons had to happen. As evidenced by their subsequent string of top 40 hits, including four #1s, they simply had too much great stuff in them for their career to be stillborn by a sophomore slump. Weller's lyrics on AMC were more trenchant than before, and he, Foxton, and drummer Rick Buckler benefited more than ever from being great players, which was more important to their sound than being great musicians. And even if Weller's songwriting slips in a few spots (eg, "Mr. Clean", "The Place I Love"), one should keep in mind that he was barely 20 years old when the album was being recorded. All Mod Cons was where The Jam became great, but over the next few years, they would become even greater.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good flavour of late 70's punk pop, May 28, 2001

By 

Jeremy Young (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Mod Cons (Audio CD)

The Jam never really made it big outside the UK. Unlike their punk peers The Sex Pistols, The Jam were more than just a blast of heavy guitars and meaningless lyrics thrown together to sound good. The Jam had something deeper to talk about, and they perfected this on "All Mod Cons", their third and arguably best album.

This album is a blast of superb punk intelligence. Following the brief opening title track, we are led into one of the trio's best songs, "To Be Someone" - a statement from songwriter Paul Weller about the excesses of being a popstar. We lead straight into "Mr. Clean", with its classic guitar riff refusing to overpower the brilliance of Weller's lyrics, an attack on the British class system. We follow with a cover of the Kinks' classic "David Watts", which despite sounding brilliant, is probably the only song close to a throwaway on the album.

The album takes a brief mellow turn here, following with one of Weller's most poignant ballads, "English Rose". We head straight back into epic territory with the classic "In the Crowd", and just before we think the trio are getting soft on us, they blast us away with "Billy Hunt", yet another character in this marvellous album.

Following with a trio of gorgeous pop ballads, we end the album with a duo of songs that show the world that these guys can still rock hard, and make a masterpiece in the process. "'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" is what I consider the entree to the epic finale, "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight", arguably the Jam's best lyrical and musical offering ever released. What makes this song so amazing is how the lyrics have been written to fit the music and the music has been written to fit the lyrics simultaneously. We are left with a masterpiece that shows extraordinary power both lyrically and musically. The bass and guitar at the start sets the tension, and the tension is kept at a peak while Weller narrates a tail of bloody violence and fear into the mind of the listener. By the time it is over (with an extraordinary fade-out and fade-in remniscent of "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" by The Smiths), we are left breathless, and gasping for more. Unfortunately this is where the album decides to end.

Many consider "Sound Affects" to be The Jam's best album. I find that album terribly overrated, and how anybody can possibly rate it above this one is beyond me. This is the trio at their peak, musically and lyrically. And in the process they released one of the greatest albums ever made.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third album finds an original rock 'n' roll voice, June 19, 2000

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: All Mod Cons (Audio CD)

After the vibrant energy of their debut ("In the City"), their second album ("This is the Modern World") was something of a disappointment. One had to wonder if Paul Weller really only had one good album in him. This third LP put that wonder firmly to rest.

On "All Mod Cons" Paul Weller finds a truly original lyrical voice, based heavily on the English storytelling tradition well-worn by the likes of Ray Davies, and the band kicks in with a tremendous jump in sophistication. The love/hate of "To Be Someone" and miserable circumstance of "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" capture the emotion of 20-something London with a closeness, a personalness, that few achieved before or after. Weller would go on to even greater brilliance (e.g., the "Sound Affects" LP), but many of his gems are here.

The band's musical muscle may have been born on their debut, but "All Mod Cons" in the genesis of Paul Weller's songwriting genius.