All Mod Cons (1978)

 Two punk albums in, The Jam leave a lot of those trappings and accept the fact that the "Taxman" bassline has no place in punk, bringing us songs like the one-two punch of the 82 second "All Mod Cons" followed by "To Be Someone". Because the "Taxman" bass line is just that good. Listening to this album after the previous two, though... Rick Buckler's drums just sound so much better. In every song, the drums stand out. My favourite track is still probably "David Watts", with Bruce Foxton taking lead vocals, but again, because of the frenetic drumming. The paired vocals of the two guitar players is also very good. Their voices complement each other well.

"You're the same as him, you're like tinned sardines, get out of the pack before they peel you back..." Foxton could write a song lyric.

The stark honesty of "English Rose" stands out for me as well. It's not the strongest track on the album, but it highlights Paul Weller as a solo performer, and foreshadows "That's Entertainment". It also introduces a recurring Weller theme of the bonds that connect us and bring us back together. Following this with "In The Crowd" is pure genius, and so is "Fly", along with "David Watts", a personal favourite.

Also pure genius - this is when The Jam start using more dad jokes in their album titles and the classic font.

I often feel like the emotional centre of a great rock song is the bassline. When it goes up, we feel up. When it goes down, we feel down. Like those arrows on Paul's sweater on the cover of This is the Modern World, The Jam is a fine balance between the destructive emotional force of punk and the optimism of youth, and the tipping point more often than not is nostalgia - it may not get better until we tear it all down, but don't you remember how we used to meet down the shops, or whatever.

"Down In A Tube Station At Midnight" is just such a good song. Hard to imagine picking this up at a record shop and listening to it for the first time. It was very nearly an album track, but got pulled because Paul didn't think it was quite ready when All Mod Cons was released.

And I feel like Bruce Foxton brings this same balance between rich heavy bass riffs that descend more than they ascend and more melodic basslines that end in the neighbourhood of an octave up... not quite disco, not quite Entwhistle or McCartney, but extremely close. By the end of this album, I'm less likely to want to tear the system down, more likely to go meet people down the shops, and honestly, it's mostly because of Foxton's background vocals and foreground bass.