Needle Time

  The Jam - The Gift [POLD 5055 UK 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] For those of you watching in black & white, this one is in technicolour.... I last ripped The Jam's swansong, The Gift for the ESWA 2.0 forum back in around 2017. This is a brand new rip from my surfacant cleaned original UK pressing, candy stripe paper bag included, of course. Paul Weller had begun to move away from the band's new wave mod-sound after Sound Affects , flirting with soul, funk, disco and northern soul. The Gift was the result, recorded at Air Studios with Peter Wilson in late 1981/early 1982, and although met with mixed reviews (the NME as fickle as ever), it was the trio's best selling long-player, spending twenty-five weeks in the British album charts. Aside from the obvious double A-side hit single, The Gift gave us two of Weller's finest songs, Carnation and Ghosts. The technicolour mix of styles throughout the album is entertaining, from energetic power-pop to Stax-soul & disc...

  The Jam - Sound Affects [POLD 5035 UK 1980 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC] As a boyhood Jam-fan, there is a stark reality which hits you when you realise that this album is forty-two years old.  My copy is an original UK release cut by Arun Chakraverty at The Master Room in London although, like many Polydor releases, it was pressed in France. To say this album has had a lot of play would be an understatement, however I thought I would make a series attempt at deep cleaning and then one final rip before it goes back onto the shelf ....for eternity! If you are on ESWA v2.0, you may have my first attempt at a rip from a few years back - ditch that and grab this, it is a significant improvement.  Whilst I understand that there are many blog followers to whom The Jam were never that important, please indulge me, for many of us (especially on these tiny islands), they were everything. A1 Pretty Green A2 Monday A3 But I'm Different Now A4 Set The House Ablaze A5 Start! ...

  The Jam - All Around The World [2058 903 UK 1977 24-Bit 48kHz FLAC] Kicking off a splurge of Jam non-album singles from original UK pressings. All Around The World was their second single and is revered as marking the move from punk/new wave into Mod'ism. No more so than on the hip-flip Carnaby Street written and sung by Bruce Foxton. A1 All Around The World  B1 Carnaby Street The Jam - News Of The World [2058 995 UK 1978 24-Bit 48kHz FLAC] This Bruce Foxton composition was never that well received at the time, however in my opinion it is a Jam classic and following its use as a TV theme in the UK, I can only hope that Foxton still gets the revenues he deserves.  For the initiated, until just a few years ago News Of The World was a British tabloid Sunday newspaper which fed the gutter-public hunger for gossip and scandal. Owned by dirty digger, Rupert Murdoch, it had to close when the paper itself became the news and scandal broke out when it was revealed that journ...

  The Jam - Snap! [38MM 0316/7 JPN 2LP+7" 1983 24-Bit FLAC] After the recent rips of the two earliest albums by The Jam, I entertained the thought of re-ripping all their singles. Most of them are originals and have seen a little too much use. In search of the perfect rip, I pulled out my immaculate Japanese pressing of their Snap! double album compilation of singles (with four bonus live tracks on a seven inch) and gave it a first spin in what seemed like decades. I was blown away by the quality of audio pouring through my ripping headphones and enjoyed every minute of the ripping & mastering processes. I don't think I have ever heard these 'greatest hits' in such detail, most of the tracks clock in comfortably below -1db with dynamic response numbers coming between DR14 and DR11. The Foxton Rickenbacker bass and the Buckler kick drum punch powerfully from the centre of the soundstage, the Weller riffs fill the space around your head with clarity and dynamism. As...

  The Jam - This Is The Modern World [2383 475 UK 1977 24-Bit FLAC] Two albums in one year, two Jam albums in two days... These days it is rare for a band to release two albums in one year (current London soul band Sault have recently broken that mold), The Jam achieved this in May & November 1977, and whilst  This Is The Modern World was never considered classic Jam at their best, it is an album scattered with occasional classics. Any album which includes the title track/opening single The Modern World , Standards and two much over-looked Weller greats (well in my opinion anyway), Life From A Window which nods with respect towards The Kinks & Small Faces, and then the power-pop energy of Here Comes The Weekend needs to be enjoyed. Then of course there is  I Need You (For Someone)  which was possibly the first genuine Weller sentimental love song. The sleeve suggests that this is a much more casual album than it's sharp-suited predecessor and The Jam were ...

  The Jam - In The City [2383 447 UK 1977 24-Bit FLAC] Now we come to an album that I grew up with - I wasn't buying much vinyl in '77 (I was ten years old) but by the time of Sound Affects and Going Underground, I was a solid Jam fan. I was never a mod as defined by the genre, however there was something in the young Paul Weller's teen frustration vibe that struck home with me. I bought everything ....and I mean everything, however my collection has slimmed down a bit over the years, much like my attitude and unlike my waistline. Put aside the, at times, dubious R&B elements of early Jam and the threesome clearly pick up the mantle where Pete Townsend and The Who left off nearly ten years previously. Whereas The Who were growing their hair and exposing their chests, The Jam were smartly presented, well drilled and turned out high velocity pop-punk-new wave-soul like no other band of their generation ...and very probably any since. This is my precious copy of their deb...

  The Jam - Setting Sons [POLD 5028 UK 1979 24-Bit FLAC] I grew up with The Jam, they were my first love in music.  Setting Sons was my first album purchase, that copy is a bit worn these days, so after a reinvestment in a near mint original copy, I present a new 2021 rip of this wonderful ...and very British album. I am forever tweaking & improving my ripping set-up and this rip is powerful and dynamic - surface noise is hardly audible and you can almost hear Bruce Foxton's plectrum pluck those Rickenbacker bass strings.  Don't ask me to pick a favourite track, well okay then - The Eton Rifles will always stand out, as the young Weller's angry observations on the British class system ring true to this day. The only Bruce Foxton composition, Smithers- Jones predicts a future world where jobs & careers are discarded without remorse at the behest of market economics, and comes a close second. This album is almost faultless, I'll even forgive that cover of Heat...

The Jam - All Around The World [2058 903 UK 1977 24-Bit FLAC] Kicking off a splurge of Jam non-album singles from original UK pressings. All Around The World was their second single and is revered as marking the move from punk/new wave into Mod'ism. No more so than on the hip-flip Carnaby Street written and sung by Bruce Foxton. A1 All Around The World B1 Carnaby Street The Jam - News Of The World [2058 995 UK 1978 24-Bit FLAC] This Bruce Foxton composition was never that well received at the time, however in my opinion it is a Jam classic and following its use as a TV theme in the UK, I can only hope that Foxton still gets the revenues he deserves.  For the initiated, until just a few years ago News Of The World was a British tabloid Sunday newspaper which fed the gutter-public hunger for gossip and scandal. Owned by dirty digger , Rupert Murdoch, it had to close when the paper itself became the news and scandal broke out when it was revealed that ...