Being in a band with your mates when you’re a teenager should be a hoot, a chance to lark about and play the music that you love. Judging by the cover of this album, the Jam make it look utterly joyless. This album was part of the late 70s mod revival (only ten years after the actual mod scene) and it feels like they’re approaching the music with exaggerated po-faced reverence rather than any sense of appreciation.
Their cover of David Watts by the Kinks takes a cheeky song about a homoerotic schoolboy crush and sucks the life out of it. Even Down in a Tube Station, the big hit off this album, comes across as preachy and overblown (and it really didn’t need 30 seconds of train noises on the outro).
The best song on here by far is English Rose, where Weller finally lets a bit of wistful longing into his voice with a nice bit of acoustic guitar and sensitive production.
https://album.link/gb/i/1440910355
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