|
Sound Affects | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Jam
Label: Polydor Group
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £3.13
You Save: £5.86 (65%)
New (29) Used (7) Collectible (5) from £3.12
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 2992
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 35
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 537421
UPC: 766482989027
EAN: 0731453742123
ASIN: B000006TZB
Release Date: August 4, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Tracks:
| • | Pretty Green | | • | Monday | | • | But I'm Different Now | | • | Set The House Ablaze | | • | Start! | | • | That's Entertainment | | • | Dream Time | | • | Man In The Corner Shop | | • | Music For The Last Couple | | • | Boy About Town | | • | Scrape Away |
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Dream Time December 17, 2008
The Jam story comes to it's climax with the stupendous 'Sound Affects'. Taking some of the sparse furore of 'Setting Sons' and stripping it down even further, Weller concocted a modernist brew of transparency and minimalism that only just stays this side of suicidal experimentation.
Gone were the full-on arrangements of previous releases, here Weller fully took on board the zeitgeist of the so-called new-pop movement blazing across UK in the early 80's.
Important groups like The Sound, Clock DVA, Wild Swans, Crispy Ambulance and many others - essentially twisted agit-pop combos - but as part of a mode of musical history, the UK has never been as creatively deluged before or since.
Weller assimilated all this new enthusiasm into the framework of Sound Affects, (and also the breathtaking 'Funeral Pyre' single) which in turn, took The Jam away into the corners, away from the mainstream and the comfort zone of the Top Twenty. In a real sense, away from the numbers (!)
Luckily for him, his audience followed, in fact it increased; 'Start' was No.1 for weeks, closely followed by the fierce 'That's Entertainment' - one of Weller's most recognizable songs - at the top end of the hit parade.
'Monday' is an astonishing song, melancholy and abrupt. Another of Weller's finest moments, 'Man in the Corner Shop' is a plaintive voice against individualism; the battle cry of Margaret Thatcher's incoming Tory Government.
Weller hated the bones of Thatcherism, and his antagonism toward it began to sow the seeds of his 80's self-destruction, fatally cultivated by his involvement with torpid political turkeys like the SWP and Red Wedge.
'Sound Affects' is Weller's last truly great work.
Really Affecting November 16, 2008
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 October 15, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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 December 10, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
A classic! August 22, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
It was Mark Ronson's rendition of Pretty Green that made me want to check this album out again. My memory always told me All Mod Cons was Weller's most artistic achievement with The Jam but listening to Sound Affects again, I find an angular amalgam of bubblegum melody and sharp industrial production - very post punk art pop, very 'now'. In fact I recognise this is the enduring sound of The Jam and not All Mod Cons which, out of context with the Mod Revival sounds more like 'Squeeze' than 'street sharp'.
Though both are great records from a great band, this is the one that has stood the test of time for me.
|
|
|
department store uk
Copyright ©2007 All rights reserved.
| Links | |
video game uk, shop uk online, books online uk, music uk, toys uk, outdoor living uk, dvd uk, dvd uk online, electronics uk, digital camera uk, pc games uk,
software shop uk, magazines uk, jewellery shop uk, baby shop uk, vhs to dvd uk, kitchen shop uk, fashion shop online, video cameras uk, camcorders uk,
dvd player uk, plasma tv uk, portable dvd uk, portable dvd player uk, portable electronics, pda phone uk, pda phone gps, gps systems uk, sound of music uk,
books uk online, tools shop london, hardware tools store, jewellery shops uk, gold jewellery sets, gold jewellery uk, watches online uk, computer software shops london,
beauty personal care, beauty health care, kitchen shop uk, audio shop uk, tv shop uk, home theater uk, cell phones uk, ipod shop online, video cameras cheap, department store uk, best buy uk,
online shopping uk
department store uk
best buy uk
electronics uk
car parts uk
music uk
links
Shipping Information
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer
|
|
|
|
| |
