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Sound Affects

LP

The Jam Format: Vinyl
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 498 ratings
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MP3 Music, November 28, 1980
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Audio CD, Import, Original recording remastered, August 15, 2006
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Track Listings

Disc: 1

1 Pretty Green - 2:37
2 Monday - 3:02
3 But I'm Different Now - 1:52
4 Set the House Ablaze - 5:03
5 Start! - 2:33
6 That's Entertainment - 3:38

Disc: 2

1 Dream Time - 3:54
2 Man in the Corner Shop - 3:12
3 Music for the Last Couple (Rick Buckler, Bruce Foxton, Paul Weller) - 3:45
4 Boy About Town - 2:00
5 Scrape Away - 3:59

Editorial Reviews

One of the most popular bands to emerge from the British punk rock scene of 1977; The Jam had a phenomenal impact on pop music and wider youth culture. In their short career, along with the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Buzzcocks, they influenced a generation with their music, style, politics and inspiration. The Jam's 6 studio albums are now available on newly remastered heavyweight vinyl, including: All Mod Cons, In The City, Setting Sons, Sound Affects, The Gift, and This Is The Modern World.

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.32 x 12.36 x 0.31 inches; 8.32 ounces
  • Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Polydor
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ 35217212
  • Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2015
  • Date First Available ‏ : ‎ February 22, 2014
  • Label ‏ : ‎ Polydor
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00IGK8F9O
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 498 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
498 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John Alapick
5.0 out of 5 stars There's not even a bad moment here.
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2008
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The Jam's Sound Affects is the band's fifth album as well as their most successful. Quite simply, this is a near perfect release where everything works, flawlessly. The album is also very well produced as Bruce Foxton's bass is provided equal footing with Paul Weller's guitar and Rick Buckler's drums. It is a melting pot of moods and styles as aggression and working class lyrics are on level with great hooks, strong melodies, and a dose of R&B. The opener "Pretty Green" is both catchy and aggressive, carried by Foxton's bassline while "Monday" is a beautiful melodic love song with great harmonies. "But I'm Different Now" is a joyous power pop song that features breaks you don't hear coming while "Set The House Ablaze" recalls the band's fiery punk roots. The most popular tracks follow with the Beatles inspired "Start" and the excellent acoustic track "That's Entertainment", whose lyrics paint a picture of England. The eclecticism continues as "Boy About Town" is more great power pop with splashes of horns and "Dream Time" starts out psychedelic before becoming a Who-like rocker. "Music for the Last Couple" is another great track that would have worked even without its sparse lyrics. Rounding out the album is the sweet melodic "Man in the Corner Shop" and the harsh and gripping "Scrape Away." All told, there is not even a bad moment on Sound Affects. I would put this on par with the best work of The Beatles, The Who, The Clash, or The Police. It's that good. Highly recommended.
14 people found this helpful
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punkviper
5.0 out of 5 stars the Crown Jewel of the Jam's illustrious career
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2001
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In The City introduced The Jam as a brash young hipster band with one foot in the UK punk underground and the other in America's R&B past. Then came This Is The Modern World, a rushed attempt at cash-in success that failed. Then All Mod Cons, a typical Jam album, solid if unspectacular. Setting Sons, the pseudo-concept album followed with its poppy sounds and glossy production. Then, the skies parted, and Sound Affects was bestowed upon the world, and everything was perfect.
Weller's poetic/sarcastic wit combine with edgy but poppy tunes to really make this The Jam's standout album. I don't believe there is a bad song on the album, and at least 3 songs (Pretty Green, That's Entertainment, & Man In The Corner Shop) rank among the best they've ever done. It's a top-notch album that deserves a lot more notoriety than it receives. Though the sad truth is that it was all downhill for The Jam after this one.
And though I can't say they were better than The Clash (The Only Band That Matters, even after all these years) The Jam were better than most. This CD proves it. An undisputed classic.
25 people found this helpful
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Dave Machemer
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Jam masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2013
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Sound Affects is an audio snapshot of The Jam in transition, bridging from the hard driving New Wave Setting Sons to the Motown influenced The Gift.

The original US vinyl release in 1980 began with Start!, which still seems to me like the perfect opening (though on this disk, it is returned to its spot on the UK release: at the end of "side 1").

This album is a delightful mix of styles and influences, spanning The Jam's early influences of Beatles (even using the Taxman bass riff on Start!) and psychedelia (Set the House Ablaze and Dream Time) to that of Motown (Monday) and folk (That's Entertainment). Though arguably flat in the production, it is nonetheless a perfect primer for the diversity of The Jam's music in their brief 5 year career.
6 people found this helpful
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boodan
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2015
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so cool
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Randolph Fowler
5.0 out of 5 stars The Jam's Masterpiece expertly remastered
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
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If only all classic albums were remastered as expertly and perfectly as "Sound Affects". The Jam's fifth studio album and - arguably - their all-around best is one of those very rare albums wherein ever song is a "winner". Lots of catchy hooks, punky guitars and staccato drumbeats mixed with Paul Weller's distinctive vocals and biting lyrics. Melodic, bittersweet, lonely, rhythmic are just some of the adjectives these 11 brilliant songs evoke.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Fanastic Slice of Fun
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2013
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When I was a kid I bought this LP based solely on the cover. I had no clue what or who THE JAM were. It was notched and in the budget bin. Probably a $2.99 bargain. What a disgrace!!! A tragedy of epic proportions! I could not believe my ears after I took it home for a spin and then another and then another and then another. It was like I had found gold in a mountain of feces. You guys rocked like no other... then and now.
3 people found this helpful
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Timothy Patton
5.0 out of 5 stars Cover to cover delight
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020
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The high point of this great band’s career and it stands the test of time even better than their catalog as a whole!
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brent bates
5.0 out of 5 stars came perfect
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021
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favorite LP by the Jam
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Top reviews from other countries

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Tedda
5.0 out of 5 stars Consiglio il cd
Reviewed in Italy on March 7, 2024
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Ottimo disco dei jam
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David Simon
5.0 out of 5 stars The Jam at their most expansive and exhilerating! Classsic 80's pop!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2023
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Got this on vinyl as soon as I heard it was out in 1980, it reflects a more expansive and confident band, using horn section, backward tapes and heavy on the Rickenbacker approaches, that give the the whole set a swagger as it paces about the room with assured self belief a plenty. So many good songs here, this for me is the Jam in full flight, full of ideas, full of vitality and mile stone melodies that worm there way deep into your psyche. A pacy and driven set of songs that don't hang about, and deliver everytime you listen. Weller's voice is in great form, but here the anguish and the anger sit closer together and in my humble opinion show a more mature and majestic depth to one of the great English bands of all time. So, quite good then!
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Lw
5.0 out of 5 stars Satisfaction
Reviewed in France on April 14, 2021
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Envoie rapide. Conforme à mes attentes.
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Gavin Doyle
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Spain on November 17, 2020
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Este es probablemente el segundo mejor álbum que The Jam ha lanzado. Una vez más, estaban en su apogeo en este y contiene grandes singles como Start y That's Entertainment, también tiene gemas como Pretty Green, Boy About Town y Man in the Cornershop. Personalmente, me encanta Dreatime.
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WEARE138
5.0 out of 5 stars Got Yourself A Pocket Full Of Pretty Green? Give It To The Man Behind The Counter. (And Buy This Record!)
Reviewed in Canada on January 22, 2018
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Okay, so "Made In The EU" and you're imagining a sexy English, French, Dutch or German pressing? Lots of possibilities with "Made In The EU" - it's a chunk of real estate is it not? Alas! The record is pressed in the Czech Republic and "gzvinyl.com" on the deadwax tells it all. A sixty year-old vinyl pressing plant that dates back to the former Czech Communist era. Not very sexy at all, at all. (Insert Nelson's "Ha Ha" here...!)

I'm 55 and have been enjoying this absolute gem of a record since it was released in my graduating year of high school in 1980. I've owned Canadian, U.S., British and Japanese pressings of this record. I rotate what I own, always adding or taking away a spice from the sauce - or simply give them away for the youngins' to enjoy. I've an encyclopedic knowledge of this record. (Apart from that, not that smart!)

So I've been doing some extensive research into this "gz vinyl" while waiting for the record. So skeptical of this record's quality I cheaped-out and bought a reduced copy with a creased cover from Amazon. Still sealed, but creased cover. Worse comes to worse, I figured I'd be out-of-pocket twenty bucks. Now remember...that's LESS than what I paid for my first British pressing in 1980 (The Record Peddlar , Queen St. East in Toronto?) on a then 17 year-old's part-time job earnings! "gz vinyl" is, like it or not, the world's largest producer of vinyl records. So busy they are, that in 2014 they cranked-out some 55,000 in one day alone. From my readings, they will make a vinyl record out of anything - your pubescent brother's farts recorded on a Maxwell cassette can be made into an "180-gram audiophile record". I've read stories of crackly, skipping, dust-ridden, fingerprint-ridden slabs of junk leaving this pressing plant. While I believe these stories, there's always a bad apple in the bunch, consider the adage of "bad news travels fast" - especially in this age of the internet. One dud and there goes your reputation on the internet. Okay, so I finally received my creased record last weekend...onto the guts of this review:

The record is an exact reproduction of my British pressing on Polydor from 1980. EXACT! The "Polydor U.K." on the blue labels hints the record was pressed in 'Blighty! A nightmare to remove from the inner cover, reproduced precisely the way you remember it with the lyrics, that the scissors came out. With extensive finagling I was able to extract the record from the way-too-tight inner sleeve without resorting to Caesarean surgery! (This will be my only peccadillo about this record!) A shot of the anti-static gun helped loosen the record from the inner sleeve. The record is now bulging-out of the inner sleeve on three sides. Hmmm...no spare NEW inner sleeves. Figures! (The funny thing is that a more common complaint about "gz vinyl", and I've seen it on-line myself, are inner sleeves that are too loose and that tend to buckle when you insert the record into the outer sleeve. Hmmm.....)

Unlike the "gz vinyl" stories I've read from the budding audiophiles with their thrift store stereos, ion turntables (with ceramic cartridges no less!) and a login to Steve Hoffman's on-line audio forum elevating them to "expert" level..the record was impeccably clean. Side One and the lead-in wax is dead quiet. And then "Bang!" The opening bass salvo from "Pretty Green" and it's like you're sitting on Bruce Foxton's bass amp. Nice chunky bass that reverberates in your chest, I swear it sounds like the 4001s Foxton used to play and yet the inner sleeve clearly shows him transitioning to a Precision bass. Wow! Seriously, this pressing is MUCH MUCH more bottom-end heavy than previous versions. Bottom-end, left-channel as God intended it to be! Buckler's drumming suddenly has a ferocity that I never noticed before in a dozen previous versions of this record. The kick drum really KICKS (!) compared to my domestic Canadian pressing where its more like a "tap drum". I love it! Between tracks, the vinyl is dead-quiet, this amplifier is at 7 and this record is begging for more power. Absolutely no distortion - the higher the volume, and it just seems to sound better and better. Gosh my neighbours are gonna love me! What a stupendous mix of this record - there are sounds included on this pressing you never even heard on previous pressings. Weller's Rickenbacker is just crackling with treble - this is not guitar-playing as much as the buzz of a chainsaw! Magnificent. This pressing just sounds so much "angrier" than my other copies. The dynamic range is just fabulous. Quiet is dead-quiet and loud is like Anvil's "blows back your hair, caves in your face".

Love it, love it, love it - darn I wish I bought a more intact copy with a crisp flat record cover...but no, I had to read what's posted on the internet first! Mea culpa, Sometimes just have have to try it for yourself instead of formulating an opinion based on what you read on the internet.

Buy it. Buy it buy it. If you're not familiar with "Sound Affects", if it is before your time, then you simply have not fully discovered rock 'n roll. And you deserve to. Does it stand up to my Japanese pressing? God yes. Easily. It just sounds that good!

Analog sourced? I doubt it - those 38-year old magnetic tapes were sourced and sent to the Czech Republic to cut a lacquer?I want to think so. But I seriously doubt it - and what shape would they be in any way after almost 40 years? Digitally sourced - but Holy Moly...done well! Pardoning the overly snug inner sleeve, and the creased cover (which I knew about before-hand), this is a masterpiece.

Got Yourself A Pocket Full Of Pretty Green? Give It To The Man Behind The Counter...And Buy This Record!
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