#417: The Jam - All Mod Cons (1978)

Zack: I think this album was more interesting than it was good. It sounds like a remaking of the British music scene of the 1960s, just with some slight updates. It’s sort of like taking The Birds and reproducing it beat-for-beat but with better graphics (which is, shockingly, a thing that is possibly happening). Sure, I get why you might do that, and it’s cool to introduce the sound to a younger audience who might not encounter the original source or would find it dated. But there isn’t anything terribly original there (I’m trying real hard not to mention The Force Awakens right now, and apparently failing.). And I don’t really find the original source all the interesting to begin with, so without a substantial unique contribution I was predestined to find this album to be lacking. As is, All Mod Cons exists mostly as a thought experiment of what would happen if the bands of 1960s London actually came out in the late 70s. And that just wasn’t enough for me.

Favorite Tracks: English Rose; Mr. Clean; Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

Emily: Everything old can be new again if you wait long enough. Fashion, food, TV, movies, music - if you loved something in pop culture 20+ years ago, you can be that a revival is imminent. Sometimes it takes even less time, before nostalgia can even set in (looking at you, Spiderman movies). The best revivals are those that take the old trend and update it for a new era, changing it just enough to still be familiar while still having a new impact. The worst ones, though, merely repeat the same beats without an understanding of why those beats are there. The late-70s Mod revival attempted by The Jam on All Mod Cons fell into the latter category for me. For one, this revival came less than 15 years after the original mod movement, while its revolution remained relatively fresh in the minds of pop music and culture consumers. And even with this in mind, the band doesn't really do anything to revive or reinvent the sound of that era. The result sounds more like a cover band than a fully realized revival - it's something everyone has already heard, but hasn't had enough time to forget. They would've been better off moving forward, like many of their punk-minded peers, than sounding stuck in their not-so-distant past.

Favorite Tracks: In the Crowd; All Mod Cons; Fly