JC over at the Vinyl Villain has mounted a challenge today over Paul Weller’s solo career.
There’s bits I have liked – but the thing is that as frontman of The Jam (who were ripped off by so many of the bands of the last decade -particularly The Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines) he was respo
nsible fo
r some of the greatest music of the last forty years.
Not of course, that the Jam’s early career was perfect. ‘In the City’ is an awesome debut -like all the best debut singles, it
sounds like a manifesto -and yet the album of the same name was patchy. The follow up This Is The Modern World wasn’t very good either -and Weller knew it. But from the era of All
Mod Cons onwards to their split in 1982, they were one of the greatest bands in the world.
And I still reckon that this is t
heir finest track:
…closely followed by this: