Well, the musician deaths start to pile up again. Roberta Flack is gone, but so is Rick Buckler, drummer of the inimitable Jam. So I planned on posting something different, but as usual when the grim reaper reaps, plans change. I don't have anything specific for Flack, but I probably at some point would have posted All Mod Cons anyway because it's such a great rock'n'roll album. Some might prefer In The City for its pure Who-esque attack, and there might even be some who prefer Setting Sons' sophistication (no one in their right mind has Sound Affects as their favorite). But for me, The Jam's masterpiece is All Mod Cons, a building block of every respectable rock'n'roll record collection.
All Mod Cons clearly shows the influence of Ray Davies and the Kinks on Paul Weller's story songs about "David Watts" or "Billy Hunt". The latter's frantic rhythm, the delicate balladry of "English Rose", the snarling, punk-ish "(Didn't We Have) A Nice Time" - this album is classic after classsic after classic. Not a minute wasted, not a bad song on the album - what more can you ask for?
So, without much ado, maximum rock'n'roll from PaulWeller and the gang...
All Mod Cons
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And you didn't even mention the highlight and real masterpiece of the collection ('Tube Station'). Did you know that the US reissue of the album has replaced Billy Hunt with Butterfly Collector which in my view is the far better song than the original choice?
ReplyDeleteAnyway that's the view of someone from 'Setting Sons' camp. I just think three or four of the track's arrangements on All Mod Cons are a bit awkward and forced. Clumsy if you like. That said it is still a fine album and a certainly better than Sound Affects and even more so The Gift. It was beginning of what possibly is Weller's most inspired period of writing which carried on all the way through to 'Going Underground' and 'Dreams Of Children' and includes almost all of the Jam's greatest songs within it.