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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: Poll 1980 Results" (PDF). Record Mirror. 10 January 1981. pp.16–17 . Retrieved 15 November 2022– via worldradiohistory.com. Sound Affects sold over 100,000 copies and spent 19 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, rising to number two in late 1980. [6] [7] [8] In the United States, the album spent 11 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart and reached its peak position of number 72 in February 1981. [9] Bubbling Under the Top LPs". Billboard. Vol.90, no.5. 4 February 1978. p.30 . Retrieved 25 March 2021.Setting Sons: "RPM Top Albums (51-100)" (PDF). RPM. 32 (26). 22 March 1980 . Retrieved 25 March 2021. Bubbling Under the Top LPs". Billboard. Vol.91, no.19. 12 May 1979. p.27 . Retrieved 25 March 2021. Nyman, Jake (2005). Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja (in Finnish) (1sted.). Helsinki: Tammi. p.221. ISBN 951-31-2503-3.

On that note, it’s probably best to start an appreciation of the album with the tune that both encapsulates Weller and that also most shamelessly shows off its roots.

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Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. There cannot be much more said about the album’s masterful centerpiece 'That’s Entertainment' that hasn’t been already. It’s a piece of urban art in league with Banksy – about finding beauty in the little noticed and sometimes maligned details of the grey mood and mundane routines of city life. The unsubtle words are accompanied by simple acoustic instrumentation, all appropriately stripped down for a tune that needs no bells and whistles. However, even this monster tune is not without influences worn brazenly. The lyrics take inspiration from a poem by the young poet Paul Drew called 'Entertainment' and Weller favourites The Small Faces’ 'Itchycoo Park' lends the spinal chords to the intro. Besides these firm 60s roots, Sound Affects stands up superbly over many of its now-dated contemporaries. In fact, the opening stabs of guitar in 'Music For The Last Couple' (the only song here credited to all band members) is just waiting to be snapped up by one of these post-post-punk, new-new-wave groups like Chapel Club and the melody of Weller’s ode to human nature 'Man In The Corner Shop' was even used by The Strokes in 'You Only Live Once'.

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. British album certifications – The Jam – Sound Affects". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 14 November 2020. Select albums in the Format field. Select Gold in the Certification field. Type Sound Affects in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter. Sinclair, Paul (23 October 2012). "The Jam / Classic Album Selection". Super Deluxe Edition . Retrieved 25 March 2021.

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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. While The Jam were firmly embedded in Punk from a music perspective they stood apart from just about all of their contemporaries by wearing smartly tailored suits; the very epitome of a Mod revival band, in looks, if not in music. With Paul Weller’s songwriting ability and guitar playing, along with Bruce Foxton’s clever driving bass lines, they had a sophisticated sound that seemed deceptively simple, yet was complex in thought and style. The UK is (obviously) a smaller country, and with a weekly music press who worked to hype the next big thing. So it was easier for a band to get known around the country much faster. The US is a huge country with the music magazines (at the time Rolling Stone and Creem would be the biggest) coming out less frequently and were much less influential. There was no easy way to get big in the US in the late ’70s/early 80’s if you were a punk(ish) band, not only did you have to get in good with the critics (which The Jam mostly did here in the US), but you had to do legwork. Top Selling Albums of 1981 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved 1 February 2022. The band’s final studio album was The Gift in 1982, which includes the Jam’s third No.1 A Town Called Malice; the album went on to top the charts and in 2012 was reissued in a super deluxe format. Soon after The Gift came out Paul Weller left to form The Style Council and later, of course, he had his own very successful solo career.

King, Ian (7 August 2015). "The Jam: About the Young Idea: The Very Best of the Jam". PopMatters . Retrieved 25 March 2021. a b c d Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.153. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. And of course, we can’t forget the familiar ‘angry young man’ tunes that The Jam’s frontman was so well known for. The dystopian 'Set the House Ablaze' serves up an aggressive portrayal of a society being misled. Weller, not often one to understate in political reference, cites the Reichstag fire that cemented the Nazi Party’s hold over Germany as a comparison to the current political climate in England. Before I get to the meat of the very Kinks-like “Man in the Corner Shop,” I’d like to express my deepest appreciation for Bruce Foxton’s outstanding bass part, a masterful mix of melodic counterpart and rhythmic thrust, a “side” contribution that is so damned good that I often tune out the rest of the song to focus solely on what Bruce is up to (kinda like what I do when I tune out the motley crew on early ELO records and just listen to Bev Bevan’s drum parts). This one is right at the top of the list of favorite bass parts along with Entwistle’s performance on “The Real Me.”This Is the Modern World peaked in the British charts at number 22, yet it received criticism for repeating the sound of the debut. The band began a headlining tour of the U.K., yet it was derailed shortly after it started when the group got into a nasty fight with a bunch of rugby players in a Leeds hotel. Weller broke several bones and was charged with assault, although the Leeds Crown Court would eventually acquit him. The Jam departed for another American tour in March of 1978 and it was yet another unsuccessful tour, as they opened for Blue Oyster Cult. It did nothing to win new American fans, yet their star continued to rise in Britain. Bands copying the group’s mod look and sound popped up across Britain and The Jam itself performed at the Reading Festival in August. All Mod Cons, released late in 1978, marked a turning point in The Jam’s career, illustrating that Weller’s songwriting was becoming more melodic, complex, and lyrically incisive, resembling Ray Davies more than Pete Townshend. Even as their sound became more pop-oriented, the group lost none of their tightly controlled energy. All Mod Cons was a major success, peaking at number six on the U.K. charts, even if it didn’t make a dent in the U.S. Every one of the band’s singles were now charting in the Top 20, with the driving “Eton Rifles” becoming their first Top Ten in November 1979, charting at number three. British certifications – Jam – Town Called Malice". British Phonographic Industry . Retrieved 3 December 2022. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Jam". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th conciseed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8. Even so, a more practical way of looking at the album would be rather to see it as a collection of post-punk takes on 60s beat group tunes; or, perhaps as a tug of war between where The Jam had been and where Weller wanted to push them. Either way Sound Affects is a record of fascinating and convoluted roots. Weller often toes the thin line between homage and theft, but manages to come out the other side of it virtually unscathed. 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]