The Jam Album: “In the City [Remastered Version]”

(...) Although individually I wouldn't rate any of the songs here among the Jam's 10 best, this is my favorite Jam album -- the most cohesive of the lot. Answers the question, "what if you spliced mid-sixties Small Faces/Yardbirds/Who/Kinks onto mid-seventies punk?" All those sixties bands just seem too *slow* after this. Makes me want to play the Yardbirds' "Having a Rave Up" at 45 rpm. Also, "hard" isn't the word here, "sharp" is -- as in tailored suits and razor-cut hair.

Weller was only 18 when this came out, and the lyrics pay homage to youth with an endearing directness and honesty, as in one of my favorites "I Got By in Time" -- "Please tell me if my philosophy's wrong / I've got to know the truth / I don't mean to offend anyone but / You know it's something I do" This is an artist treating his audience with respect instead of condescension. Plenty of punk anger shows through, however, as on the opening track "Who makes the rules that make people select / Who is to judge that your ways are correct / (...) / The TV telling ya what to think." I highly recommend this album -- it's fast, tight and very cathartic.

The amazing thing about this record is its deceptive simplicity. It has all the halmarks of punk, 3 chords and attitude, but it has deep intelligence, pop reference and lays the ground work for the true Jam materpieces such as Setting Sons and Sound Affects. It's 1998 and I still listen to this great punk album in my car!

This is the Jam punk style. What I mean the talent and song writing is there but they are playing everything more aggressive and faster and less refined than the next albums because of the times in Britain. I love this album, this is one of their best I like the fury and fast pace.

People remark about how they didn't make it in the U.S.. It's not that their songs were to British. I grew up back then and punk was very much shunned by everybody in the States, there was no punk by any band being played on radio PERIOD! The status quo back then was Journey, Boston, Styx, E.L.O... and if you wanted to go more dangerous you would listen to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. Nobody even had heard of the Sex Pistols except a handful of people. Except for maybe Blonde getting on the airwaves around 98% of the U.S. kids didn't know anything about Punk/New Wave until around 1979 when the B-52s and Devo (both from America) barely trickled in and that was only in California and some of the east coast. The Clash and Elvis Costello were the first musicians to finally get any sort of any airplay around 1980. They were the 2 musicians to slightly break into the U.S.. The Jam did start touring the states around that time and since they were not known and no venues yet for Punk/New Wave bands the Jam toured with the Blue Oyster Cult which was a complete failure. By the time the U.S. radio finally opened up thanks to MTV the Jam were on their last leg. That's the main reason why they didn't make it in the U.S.

The saddest aspect about The Jam's meteoric career (a quick six years in Britain) is that nary a rumble was ever heard on American shores. While The Sex Pistols grabbed the headlines (almost singlehandedly defusing the English punk revolution in the process) and The Clash succumbed to American rock stardom, it was The Jam who continued to wave the flag for punk's ideals without falling victim to its excesses.

As one of the Big Three bands to explode out of the punk scene, The Jam dared to retain their worship of the mid-1960's mod movement, right down to their love of Motown, their Rickenbacker guitars, and their matching suits, without ever sacrificing their allegiance to Great Britain (hence, their lack of success in the United States).

While not quite the grand slam of their later albums, 'In The City' showed more than enough musical moxie to make The Jam real contenders for the crown of Britain's Greatest Band. The title track (their first hit), "Away From The Numbers", "I Got By In Time", and "Sounds From The Street" combine Jam singer/guitarist/composer Paul Weller's love of the early Who with the British rhythm & blues style of pub rockers Dr. Feelgood. Weller's worship of The Beatles and particularly Ray Davies of The Kinks guaranteed a Jam song catalog brimming with well-crafted melodies and often pungent lyrics chronicling the lives of Britain's working class heroes.

Only a few duff cover tunes (the atrocious 'Slow Down' played at breakneck speed and the perfunctory filler of 'The Batman Theme') mar an otherwise rough and ready introduction to one of rock's best bands.

The Jam is one of those great acts that never got caught up in the smelly New Wave nor drowned in the stinky Mosh pit, wearing neither outfits redolent of birds of Papua New Guinea nor the interior of a '49 Buick engine cylinder valve...maybe one must be British to get them completely, but nevertheless, a good rockin' band that get's your toes tapping, your booty shakin' and your mind a thinkin'!