Greatest Album of 1979 - Elimination Round 4

[Heston]

Well, the bigots here have decided epileptics don't deserve respect either. You're all terrible. So, who's next for offending your high standards?

Plenty more to hate left. Blacks, Irish, commies...

The English.

Who in their right mind would be voting "Setting Sons" off so soon?

Flex.

Pure insanity.

I've always rated Setting Sons pretty low (relatively, I mean. I'm about to sound kinda mean about the album but it's only because this is a comparative exercise). An album of mostly fine but not great songs, a great single, another song that's worse on the album version than the single version, and an awful cover to end the album (unlike the clash, the jam were mostly quite bad at covers). Of The Jam's catalog, only The Gift has less to offer a listener. I've never heard a compelling argument for why Setting Sons is a particularly artistically important Jam album. A commercial hit maybe, but who gives a fuck about that.

I take your point about Smithers-Jones. I think Heatwave is a good cover though it doesn't fit into the album thematically. Girl On the Phone is an average opener but aside from that it is great songs all the way. Regularly fights it out with All Mod Cons as the best Jam album.

[Dr. Medulla]

Well, the bigots here have decided epileptics don't deserve respect either. You're all terrible. So, who's next for offending your high standards?

Plenty more to hate left. Blacks, Irish, commies...

The English.

Some twenty years on this board has taught us all that lesson.

[Kory]

Well, the bigots here have decided epileptics don't deserve respect either. You're all terrible. So, who's next for offending your high standards?

Plenty more to hate left. Blacks, Irish, commies...

The English.

Who in their right mind would be voting "Setting Sons" off so soon?

Flex.

Pure insanity.

I've always rated Setting Sons pretty low (relatively, I mean. I'm about to sound kinda mean about the album but it's only because this is a comparative exercise). An album of mostly fine but not great songs, a great single, another song that's worse on the album version than the single version, and an awful cover to end the album (unlike the clash, the jam were mostly quite bad at covers). Of The Jam's catalog, only The Gift has less to offer a listener. I've never heard a compelling argument for why Setting Sons is a particularly artistically important Jam album. A commercial hit maybe, but who gives a fuck about that.

I take your point about Smithers-Jones. I think Heatwave is a good cover though it doesn't fit into the album thematically. Girl On the Phone is an average opener but aside from that it is great songs all the way. Regularly fights it out with All Mod Cons as the best Jam album.

It's certainly better than the first two albums by a wide margin, on the strength of Private Hell and Burning Sky alone.

[Flex]

It's certainly better than the first two albums by a wide margin, on the strength of Private Hell and Burning Sky alone.

Maybe better than Modern World (although I don't agree personally, I rate that slightly higher) but In The City is their second best record after All Mod Cons.

[Kory]

It's certainly better than the first two albums by a wide margin, on the strength of Private Hell and Burning Sky alone.

Maybe better than Modern World (although I don't agree personally, I rate that slightly higher) but In The City is their second best record after All Mod Cons.

ITC was always a little too one-note for me. I much prefer the diversity of sounds and unexpected song structures of SS. Even pulling out Smithers-Jones and Heatwave, it's pretty hard to find fault with the rest of it, especially in lyrical content. And I even appreciate that version of S-J for its role as a mood break in the middle. I have the other version on Snap! so it's not a huge deal to me that it's not on SS. I do like ITC, but I have to be in the mood for it.