The Jam on Vinyl - UK vs US Polydor

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by kdl6769, Jan 20, 2017.

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  1. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    I looked on Discogs and it's the sides reversed with Strange Town added before Thick As Thieves, track 2 side 2.
     
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  2. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    Snap! is great on UK vinyl, but I've always found side 2 a bit crammed so it's quieter than the other 3 sides. One of the great compilation albums though, possibly the best.
     
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  3. mogambotek

    mogambotek Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    I have a WLP US copy of All Mod Cons... sounds pretty great to me, but then again i don't have a UK copy to compare.
     
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  4. landerstnkb

    landerstnkb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    Darn, I want to track down a Canadian version now!!

    A1 Strange Town
    A2 Saturdays Kids
    A3 Little Boy Soldiers
    A4 The Eton Rifles
    A5 Girl On The Phone
    A6 (Love Is Like A) Heatwave
    B1 Smithers-Jones
    B2 Private Hell
    B3 The Butterfly Collector
    B4 Burning Sky
    B5 Thick As Thieves
    B6 Wasteland
     
  5. landerstnkb

    landerstnkb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    This was the first Jam album I bought after hearing a 45 of Heatwave and Saturday's Kids (I discovered The Jam a year after they broke up). I knew nothing about the band but learned a great deal from reading the excerpts of A Beat Concerto located on the gatefold sleeve. This album made me a lifelong fan of The Jam, The Style Council, and solo Weller. As far as "greatest hits" albums go, this is one of the best! All the A-sides, a few B-sides, a few choice album cuts, and (if you were lucky to get one of the early copies) a live EP. I just wish there wasn't that corny picture of the band with the saw, the spade, the fridge, and the toothpick.
     
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  6. heliocentric

    heliocentric Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool
    Worked my way through Snap, All Mod Cons and Setting Sons today, all were Japanese pressings and they all sound really good. What struck me to was how thin the vinyl is compared to modern pressings.
     
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  7. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    At one point I had three different pressings of the debut album and compared them all. The UK first pressing won by a hair. NONE of them sounded bad and I would be happy listening to any of them.

    Right now I have a mix of UK/US/Canada pressings for the studio albums as well as the complete studio box from a few years ago. None of these pressings sound bad.
     
  8. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    I bought all the UK pressings when they first came out. I was fortunate that my local record store was run by folks who loved The Jam. While I've never compared my copies to their US counterparts, the comment upthread that the sequencing and song selection on the US version of Setting Sons is better makes me curious. I'll report back after I get it.

    But that's not why I'm posting. The problem is Sound Affects. The UK version plain sounds bad, or at least mine does. It's marked A2/B3 and a thread which now I can't find states that later cuts were tweaked to sound better. My pressing is compressed and the midrange can get really congested and fuzzy on loud passages.

    Last month I found a sale price on the 2016 reissue. It wasn't the answer. The bass has been tamed. What? Sound Affects is one of the great bass records of the 1980s. It doesn't go down real deep but the bass guitar is as impactful as all get out. Not on the reissue. Let me restate that: the bass has been beaten into submission. I also find the reissue has poor dynamics. No thank you.

    Searching for a solution lead me to this thread a month ago.
    I found a beautiful copy stateside for a reasonable price. Thirty seconds into "Pretty Green,", I jumped out of my listening chair and I was on my feet, screaming, "Yeah!" With Foxton's terrific bass up front and Weller's guitar stabbing the beat, it was actually Buckler's echo-driven snare that sent me into ecstasy. That effect has always been a disappointment. Not on the Japanese pressing. The slap-happy echo made Rick's snare expand out of the right channel to over the whole soundstage. There is air in the mix, the only pressing of the three that reveals the space between the instruments. The other two mash them all together.

    Yes, folks, the first Japanese pressing of Sound Affects is the schnizzle.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2017
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  9. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Don't have one but I'm sure it sounds great. I have a Canadian pressing which sounds very nice and the LP box set reissue as a back up, so never had a need to seek out anything else. If I happened upon one in a store at a good price (very unlikely) I would grab it for sure.
     
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  10. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    You might find one more easily than you think. The one advantage of liking The Jam in the US is that very few of us do. I found mine on Musicstack from an upscale LP reseller (AudiophileUSA) I've used in the past. The cost was less than $30 including shipping. It's a magnificent copy, only missing the OBI strip, which it may never have had in the first place.
     
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  11. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    The last time I used Musicstack was probably over a decade ago. Thanks for the tip. Right now I'm trying to avoid buying multiple copies of music I already own, so something like this wouldn't be a high priority (it is a great album though). Hence my comment re: if I happened to run into it at a shop. I may check that seller for other stuff.
     
  12. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    Well.... at the moment Japanese vinyl doesn't seem to have as high prices as it used to. Sometimes I'm surprised what I find at fairs.
    A Japanese pressing released without obi? No way!
     
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  13. bibijeebies

    bibijeebies vinyl hairline spotter

    Location:
    Amstelveen (NL)
    I bought the Dutch Polydor new in 1980 and it sounds great!
    The Jam - Sound Affects
     
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  14. I'm glad you like it. It really does "pop" all the details, doesn't it? I had the first issue of the UK pressing back in 1980 and whilst admittedly I only had a very cheap turntable to play it on back then, it used to skip like mad all through Pretty Green. It wasn't a great pressing but with a better tracking arm, no doubt it still sounds quite good. I like the warmth of the Japanese pressing.
     
  15. srsch

    srsch Senior Member

    Location:
    NJ USA
    I foolishly bought the 2016 vinyl issue of Sound Affects. I agree with you 100%. The beginning of Dream Time is cut off too. Whoever mastered it made some bad choices.
    I recently reacquired a US copy of Sound Affects and it really shines. I may like it better than The MFSL 2fer CD. There's also a fantastic 12" US promo of 4 songs from Sound Affects that will never leave my collection (My favorite sounding mastering of Monday, That's Entertainment, Start!, and Pretty Green).
     
  16. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    Because of this thread, I bought the US pressing of Setting Sons. I found a promo version that is just about flawless. I bought it because people were saying the songs were in a different order than my UK press. Well, yeah, somewhat. "Strange Town" is added to side 2 but otherwise, the new order is the B side is the A side and visa versa. It turns out this is a really good idea. The album hangs together much better because of this simple change. Plus "Burning Sky/Smithers-Jones/Saturday's Kids/The Eton Rifles" is a terrific opener.

    I also liked the sound of the US press. My UK first press is bright. That makes it sound snappier but the tonal balance is better on the US press. I'll give up some attack for a richer sound. If Bruce Foxton stopped by my house tonight, saying he'd lost his copy of Setting Sons and could I give him one, he'd get the UK album whule I'd keep the US one.
     
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  17. srsch

    srsch Senior Member

    Location:
    NJ USA
    Back in the day I used to think all the UK vinyl was better than their US counterparts. In terms of packaging, the UKs always win. However, as I have reacquired some of the US pressings, they are all excellent. I haven't done an A/B comparison, but after recently listening to some of the US LPs, they really do sound great. In The City and Modern World in their US pressings are open, powerful, and very dynamic. Sound Affects (US pressing) is fantastic. The US The Gift is also better than I remember. I still need to re-buy US pressings of Setting Sons and All Mod Cons. If anyone is interested in buying the LPs on vinyl, I would highly recommend the original US versions and original UK versions. The UK reissue of Sound Affects is awful (IMHO).
     
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  18. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    @srsch, my experience with US pressings of The Jam is limited. Like you, I always assumed the UK pressings were better. Add onto that my favorite record store back in the old days always got the UK versions within a week or two of their release, and Polydor often dawdled in getting the new Jam record out on this side of the pond. I never even heard a US copy. My regret. I guess I now get to buy the remaining five Jam studio albums on US vinyl. Shucky darn. It's such a tough life being a record collector. ;)

    This is an advantage of being a Jam fan in the United States. Nobody cares. That M- promo version of Setting Suns cost me all of $14.99. Good luck of that happening with a record by U2, The Police or the Ramones. Maybe the remaining five albums will run me $100, and that's including shipping. I bet it will be less.

    Liking The Jam in the United States is like being a member of a really cool cult. All Mod Cons indeed!
     
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