The Jam on Vinyl - UK vs US Polydor

Has anyone compared the sound of the original UK releases to that of their original US counterparts on Polydor?

 

I was just wondering the same thing, which led me to your topic. Tonight I listened to an original U.K. and U.S. This Is The Modern World and the U.S. sounds like it has a little more volume to it. I then listened to both Sound Affects and to my ears, again the U.S. has a little more volume.Same thing with Setting Sons. I don't have a very good stereo system (Aiwa bookshelf with Audio Technica AT-LP 120 turntable) so I can't really comment on anything more than that. IMHO the U.K. releases will always be better for the packaging alone.

 

The original UK albums stomp all over the US releases. Plus, as already noted, the packaging is much better.

 

Yeah, I have to say in this case country of origin is the real thing. I had a bunch of US copies, but replaced them all with original UK's. Big sonic improvement all around, better covers, some alternate track listings as well.

 

Wish I could find some affordable UK pressings. Is the recent box set even remotely close? I can't seem to get anything close to a definitive answer on whether that set is worth it.

 

What he said mate !

 

Just this week I picked up a VG+ Snap! (minus the live ep) for $10, a first press U.K. Sound Affects (NM) for $11 and an early second press U.K. Setting Sons (embossed cover but printed song list, NM) for $25. I won these on eBay from the same seller and am kicking myself I didn't bid a little more aggressively for the U.K. first pressings of In The City and All Mod Cons, which I stopped bidding at $25. My advice is pick up originals via eBay and Discogs and stay clear of the recent re releases. I bought the Back to Black release of All Mod Cons and was pissed to hear it cut Weller's count in at the start of the album. The packaging was spot on however.

 

I've done a direct comparison between the UK and U.S. Snap. Night and day difference. Sounds like the U.S. used a generation-removed master tape.
The UK is my best sounding Jam vinyl. The U.S. has been sold.

 

The original UK pressings are all magnificent. The Jam fans tended to be loyal so a lot will have bought all of them. They are common LPs in the UK, so it's worth waiting until an eBay seller lists a lot of them together and then take advantage of combined shipping to the US. It's incredibly expensive to get one LP posted from the UK to US for some reason.

 

The original Japanese LP of Sound Affects is the best copy I've heard yet.

 

I have a mixture of UK and US pressings. The US pressings I have were cut at Sterling and sound quite good.

 

Not all the UK pressings were magnificent. For those folks without high quality tone-arms / tracking ability, the original Sound Affects will be almost un-listenable. High quality modern arms will be ok but it's a risk otherwise due to skipping all over the place. I had several copies in 1980 and they were all returned. It's also now criminally expensive for US sellers to ship to the UK, so it works both ways!

 

+1 I have a Japanese pressing of Setting Sons that sounds wonderful.

 

I would imagine the Japanese pressings are nice. I have Japanese pressings of Introducing The Style Council and Our Favourite Shop, as well as the Japanese TSC singles box and they all sound fantastic.

 

I've had a lot of copies of Sound Affects through my hands and currently own a superb condition one, with the paper labels. A lot of the UK original issues were pressed in France and had plastic mold injected labels which are more often found on 45s. I've never had that problem on any of these LPs on any turntable, though I don't doubt it occurred. There's a lot of bass on that record. I love the sound of it, my favourite Jam LP.

I wish the UK - US & vice versa shipping was more affordable. There's so many great US soul albums I'd love to have from there.

 

I've always liked the U.S. version of Setting Sons over the U.K.version because the running order of the songs makes more sense to the original idea of a concept album. It opens with Burning Sky and closes with Wasteland, which are two songs Weller probably wrote for the planned concept album. It also adds Strange Town which is a bonus!!

 

I didn't know that. Strange Town is one of my favourite Jam songs so this has to make the US version preferable.

 

I got every release on the day they were out from This Is The Modern World in Nov 1977....(In The City s few months after it was released).
I gave them all to my nephew..as I replaced them with CDs.
The bugger won't give em' me back!!!

 

The 90s caused people to do strange things with their vinyl! At least you didn't throw them out. I got a full set of Jam 45s in a charity shop for under £5 in about 1994. All in excellent condition with picture sleeves and the double packs of Beat Surrender and Going Underground.

 

I sold all my singles in 2001 !!!!

 

Album wise....I've kept about 50....ones that I couldn't get on CD or are plain rare or have sentimental value.

 

But do you regret it? It's not too bad if you don't. I've sold records I regret in the past, but it's easy to forget how skint I was then.

 

The Canadian version has 12 tracks and starts with Strange Town!

 

Yes.

 

I like the sound of that sequencing. Now I'm going to have to track down a copy!