release date: Nov. 3, 1978
format: cd
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,56]
producer: Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, Chris Parry
label: Polydor Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: A) 1. "All Mod Cons" - 2. "To Be Someone (Didn't We Have a Nice Time)" (4 / 5) - 3. "Mr. Clean" (4 / 5) - 4. "David Watts" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 5. "English Rose" (5 / 5) - 6. "In the Crowd" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "Billy Hunt" (4 / 5) - 2. "It's Too Bad" (5 / 5) (live) - 3. "Fly" (4 / 5) - 4. "The Place I Love" (5 / 5) - 5. "'A' Bomb in Wardour Street" (4 / 5) - 6. "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" (5 / 5)
[ full album playlist ]
3rd album by The Jam was released on Polydor Records and like the two first studio albums it was produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and Chris Parry. After the great debut album In the City (1977), the band released This Is the Modern World (Nov. '77) only six months later, and that album is by many considered the weakest album by The Jam [I think it's much better today than then], but then they went on and made this near masterpiece. The album doesn't contain a single weak track. All songs except "David Watts" (by Ray Davies, org. performed by 'The Kinks') are written by Paul Weller who had already established himself as one of the best regarded English songwriters, and the album went as high as to number #6 on the UK albums chart list and it was the first The Jam album to sell Gold. The style has transformed from what took its starting point in the aggressiveness of punk rock on the debut to a more unique mod revival sound which loans from new wave and power pop. The album is deservedly enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 5 / 5 stars ]
1978 Favourite releases: 1. The Clash Give 'Em Enough Rope - 2. The Jam All Mod Cons - 3. Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
