Sound Affects

Product Information

In 2006, Q placed Sound Affects at number 15 on its list of the "40 Best Albums of the '80s". [21] In 2013, NME ranked Sound Affects at number 487 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. [22] In 2020, Rolling Stone included Sound Affects in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list, praising the band for crafting their "finest album", while encapsulating "the classic English songcraft of the Kinks and the Small Faces, singing about working-class anger". [23] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. [24] Okay, a Jam album seemingly cut to my exact measurements. A group who always wore their influences like they were medals, Sound Affects has the Jam asking to be rewarded for quoting Gang of Four and and Wire. And I'm perfectly happy to give them such a nod, considering that this is rather fabbo.

The album features the group's second UK number one single, "Start!". Polydor pushed for "Pretty Green" to be the first single released, but Weller insisted on "Start!". This involved consulting a few of the band's friends as to what they thought the best release would be. Weller had Polydor A&R man Dennis Munday ask a small peer group of his friends who had been present throughout the recording sessions at the Town House and prior demo recordings at Polydor Studios. Given the choice, they selected "Start!" as the best single release and the decision was made to release it. The decision was vindicated when "Start!" topped the British singles charts in its third week after entering at number three. [7]The fade features the voice of one Laurent Locher, bass player of Les Lords, a band of punks-turned-mods from Caen who drew a bit of attention during their brief existence but never really caught fire in La Belle France (or anywhere else, for that matter). Weller brought Locher into the fold to translate the last two lines quoted above into French: “ La puissance c’est tout, c’est la puissance dont tu as besoin.”Though it sounds like something Louis XIV could have come up with, I could find no evidence to connect the quote to anyone other than Paul Weller. While some may consider “Scrape Away” kind of a downer ending, I think calling bullshit on cynicism is a beautiful thing indeed. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Tammi. p.221. ISBN 951-31-2503-3. Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 13 October 2023. Pretty Green” may come across as an astonishingly simple song, but the simplest messages often contain more truth than the longest speeches, poems or novels:

The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 What came out of all this was, arguably, the greatest year for great albums ever". Rolling Stone. 11 November 2020 . Retrieved 12 November 2020. Sinclair, Paul (23 October 2012). "The Jam / Classic Album Selection". Super Deluxe Edition . Retrieved 25 March 2021. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.153. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.Sinclair, Paul (27 July 2017). "The Jam / 1977 five-disc box set". Super Deluxe Edition . Retrieved 25 March 2021.