Review of "This Is The Modern World" Album

by Mick Farren

©New Musical Express - November 1977

So this is the modern world. I´m glad they told me. For an instant I´d thought I´d been transported back to 1965 ...

He doesn´t need me to tell him (Weller) that The Jam are playing excellent, streamlined rock and roll.

He also won´t want me to point out that the production by Vic Smith and Chris Parry is well on the thin side, that some of the riffs don´t stand up to the amount of repetition that they are subjected to and that after a couple of tracks the vocals do lean towards the monotonous ...

What The Jam have in common with the rest of the British new wave is a kind of sullen gut level nihilism ...

I doubt anything I could say would add to or detract from its obvious status as a hot item, buy wise. So roll the commercials.