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BarcodeComment: Emotional-best-album-wellers-band-sound-3938355904
I'll plump for 'Sound Affects' as the Jam's best album, but although 'The Gift' is a flawed work there is an emotional intensity about many of the tracks that appeals. Particularly the first three - 'Happy Together' (which, with the constant 'Fa-fa-fa' backing vocals on several songs seems to be an oblique nod to US sixties band The Turtles) is sardonic; while 'Ghosts' and 'Precious ' have some of Weller's best ever lyrics. 'Running on the Spot' and 'Carnation' are in a similar vein - intense and emotional. And, likewise, one is highly personal, the other seems to reflect Weller's social concerns. At the time the album was released I could never get past the fact that 'A Town Called Malice' sounds rather too like the Supremes' 'Can't Hurry Love'. It's grown on me a bit now, but still.....Elsewhere 'Just Who is the Five O'Clock Hero' and 'Planners Dream Went Wrong' sound like a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh movie set to music. The former is a great track, the latter just, well,...
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| Author: Andre' S Grindle "Funk M.. | Paul Weller is ready for a big musical change.While on"The Gift" Weller and The Jam deliver some typically catchy,sponanious Brit pop like "Happy Together","Ghosts" and "RunningOn the Spot",much of this album seriously attempts to blend inheavy funk,jazz,Carribean and even African styled music intoThe Jam's framework.This approch doesn't always succeed entirelybut on numbers like the Sly Ston-ish "Trans-Global Express",thebombastic afro-funk of "Precious" and the classic,almost ready-made Motown beat of the classic "Town Called Malice".Whilethe Jam effectively pull off the diverse songwritng assignmentsand add in punchy horn charts,it's clear Weller was proven right-the guitar-based Jam simply wern't the band to make this kindof music consistantly and while they're all fantastic musiciansin their own right,Weller was wise to try something... | 2 | |
| Author: Christopher Ingalls (Mas.. | It's hard for me to give any Jam album less than five stars...they are, after all, one of my favorite bands. Paul Weller, before forming the Style Council and eventually going on to a solo career, was the singer/songwriter/guitarist for this influential mod/punk trio that was enormously successful in their native England but never really hit it off in the States. As their albums progressed, Weller began moving the band further away from straight punk and into more R&B-flavored territory. Here are the ultimate fruits of that transformation. | 2 | |
| Author: Rob Hosking - See all m.. | I'll plump for 'Sound Affects' as the Jam's best album, but although 'The Gift' is a flawed work there is an emotional intensity about many of the tracks that appeals. Particularly the first three - 'Happy Together' (which, with the constant 'Fa-fa-fa' backing vocals on several songs seems to be an oblique nod to US sixties band The Turtles) is sardonic; while 'Ghosts' and 'Precious ' have some of Weller's best ever lyrics. 'Running on the Spot' and 'Carnation' are in a similar vein - intense and emotional. And, likewise, one is highly personal, the other seems to reflect Weller's social concerns. At the time the album was released I could never get past the fact that 'A Town Called Malice' sounds rather too like the Supremes' 'Can't Hurry Love'. It's grown on me a bit now, but still.....Elsewhere 'Just Who is the Five O'Clock Hero' and 'Planners Dream Went Wrong' sound like a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh movie set to music. The former is a great track, the latter just, well,... | 3 | |
