Sound Affects

A musical bridge between youth and adulthood, <i>Sound Affects</i> is a showcase for The Jam’s versatility and Paul Weller’s range of ideas. Whilst “But I’m Different Now” and “Set the House Ablaze” are ferocious, pop-spiked punk tunes, Weller expands his vision with the working-class vignettes of “Pretty Green” and “Man in the Corner Shop”. The band’s musicality blossoms in the gloomy daydreams and Who-like harmonies of “Monday”, but the centrepiece is “That’s Entertainment”, an affectionately melancholic sketchbook of blue-collar London.