Hard 3. Slap bang in the middle of bands I donât care enough to listen to, but donât care enough to actively avoid. A mediocrity elevated to the pantheon by Q magazine and the NME, but they arenât actively bad.
All these jokes about The Jam being better than The Clash are all very well, but will we get to do a HGATR on The Clash soon so we can really find out?
1 - Genuinely dislike their output and struggle to understand what others see in them
2 - Some redeeming features and/or not for me but I can see why others might dig it
3 - Got to have at least some output that I really like, but could also have some duffers
4 - Really bloody good actually
5 - ATDs
Theyâre kinda ok arenât they, without being anything to be especially excited about any more? I imagine theyâd be held in higher regard if Weller had faded into obscurity after the band split up and that they probably felt more culturally relevant at the time. They seem to tap into that sense of suburban boredom pretty wellâŠbut it appears itâs all overshadowed by a haircut & choice of friends a few years later.
Prefer the earlier albums to the later albums, up to all Mod Cons really. Some great singles. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, A Bomb On Wardour Street and The Modern World are all decent.