Reviews Of
"Not another Jam album? Well, not actually. There´s never been just another Jam album ... This album takes the band forward ... SOUND AFFECTS isn´t a perfect Jam album, even if it is a great one ... It´s a brave departure and an earnest effort to break new ground ... That dense heavy sound which found its climax in ´Going Underground´ has been cut back, stripped down to only its most basic parts ... Instrumentation is stark, spare and hard ... ´Monday´ is a beautiful love song that climbs up to classic status ... These influences are only incorporated to enrich what´s really there, and reamain firmly subservient to Weller´s own songwriting gifts ... ´That´s Entertainment´ must rate as one of Paul Weller´s finest pieces to date ... He´s observing with more vivid descriptive ability than at any time previously ... As always the view point is a humane, personalistic one ... Where SOUND AFFECTS is good it´s great, and where it´s not so good it´s still good ... I´ve got SOUND AFFECTS and I´m chuffed with it and all I want now is another Jam album."
"The complexities start when I try to analyse why I am not overwhelmed by this album ... What I hear is a Jam album I respect, but don´t necessarily like ... I do not doubt Weller´s sincerety -- he has proved his ability at articulating the frustrations which form the sad foundation for this society ... It is for them that Paul Weller speaks, it is why the song ´That´s Entertainment´ is one of Weller´s finest ever efforts ... Weller still has to prove that he has mastered those influences ... Weller is still only 22 and this is the fifth album he has created ... It´s flawed but even in those flaws lie the seeds for the future, fascinating developments ... Weller has set himself impressively high standards and SOUND AFFECTS does not fully realise his capabilities ... Whilst I admire this album I do not like it. Not yet."
"They should have been shot down years ago! That they weren´t is almost entirely due to the fact that Paul Weller talks to ordinary people in an extraordinary voice but minus the usual deceit or malice ... Weller´s humanism is as simple and direct as it is unaffected. He cares ... In SOUND AFFECTS they have made their best album yet ... The barbs themselves aren´t important, but what is, is the feel of challange and commitment ... As a result SOUND AFFECTS is a truly stirring record ... It brings the necessary orthodox of The Jam to a peak ... The balance is magnificent, classical in design ... A celebration of a liberating force in rock and roll (sound does affect!) ... Side Two, for instance, opens viciously, problemically with typical English storyettes in taut fast music in the shape of ´Dream Time´ and ´Man In The Corner Shop´ ... The second side is completed by the sheer classic 45 pop of ´Boy About Town´ Dexys horns and all ... It is heart music ... From propably the last great English singles band, the most outspoken and rounded Jam LP yet."
