Reviews Of
"Weller is unlikely to self-destruct because he´s far too clever by far ... SETTING SONS is a major development and something of a departure. Basically The Jam are disassociating themselves from mod before they´re buried with it ... There isn´t one dubious song among the nine originals ... The album is still the greatest risk they´ve taken in their careers ... It´s scope has wider connotations but paradoxically, its subjects are narrower and less easy to identify ... It´s not a concept album ... ´Thick As Thieves´ is possibly the best song Weller has ever written and the key to the album´s theme ... The song puts the others in perspective ... The rest of the album Weller carries alone with his stunning vocals, chopping, abrupt and propulsive guitar and a batch of melodies and arrangement that put many of the songs on ALL MOD CONS into the shade ... More than ever, it´s a one man band ... SETTING SONS is Weller´s personal statement ... The success of this album doesn´t rely on familiarity and identification, but on his talent alone. It´s Paul´s best album yet; almost his first solo album too."
"They´ve always settled for working within their own limits. There´s no sense of ambition, no feeling that they´ve got to conquer the world by next Tuesday, Wednesday if they have a half day off on Saturday. So if The Clash are persistent under-achievers, The Jam are constant over-achievers ... If you reach for the universe you´ll almost certainly fall flat of your face now and again. If you set yourself modest targets you´ll always get them but won´t you get much further. Which is all by way of a perspective on this album. It´s all good but none of it is great ... As with all The Jam´s best work, on first hearing it sounds perfect -- it´s only when you look close you see the holes ... The real disappointment is that you feel that Weller doesn´t quiet understand that to a perfect song, you´ve got to take a lot more into consideration. And, of course, it doesn´t help that he´s as unwitty in his songs as he is in interviews ... You pump them out with your usual panache and style -- guitars ringing around a drum sound so hard you could cut diamonds with it and that whining Surrey accent -- half guttersnipe, half confused adolescent ... I found myself thinking of Ray Davies. There´s the same wearing your suburban neurosis on your sleeve, the same lack of over-whelming confidence, the same disbelief that somebody is paying you to do this, and the same understanding that if you go so far, and no further, you´ll never go wrong ... Long my Paul Weller have such modest aims."
"Like Ray Davies of The Kinks, Paul Weller is obsessed with England ... On SETTING SONS he takes a broader sweep all around ... The result is a set of tunes of emotional depth and maturity ... As on most of his compositions, here Weller is pointing his finger at the protagonist whilst accepting that he is merely a pawn in society´s game ... Let´s just say that SETTING SONS is a far more ambitious and adventurous project in every respect ... The last great album of the Seventies."
"Progression is the key word here, and this album is the evidence ... The album reveals The Jam, and more pertinently Paul Weller, breaking away from the confinements of mod ... He´s coolly taking stock off all the evidence, and supplying us with his bleakest picture yet ... By using a concept device, Weller is able to put forward two opposing points of view ... Outside of this concept, the picture is just as nasty ... The band´s ability to put together convincing soundtracks for their scenarios ... The Jam have never sounded better ... Paul Weller is 21."
