Technicolour Gifts

 

The Jam - The Gift [POLD 5055 UK 1982 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC]

For those of you watching in black & white, this one is in technicolour....

I last ripped The Jam's swansong, The Gift for the ESWA 2.0 forum back in around 2017. This is a brand new rip from my surfacant cleaned original UK pressing, candy stripe paper bag included, of course.

Paul Weller had begun to move away from the band's new wave mod-sound after Sound Affects, flirting with soul, funk, disco and northern soul. The Gift was the result, recorded at Air Studios with Peter Wilson in late 1981/early 1982, and although met with mixed reviews (the NME as fickle as ever), it was the trio's best selling long-player, spending twenty-five weeks in the British album charts.

Aside from the obvious double A-side hit single, The Gift gave us two of Weller's finest songs, Carnation and Ghosts. The technicolour mix of styles throughout the album is entertaining, from energetic power-pop to Stax-soul & disco, the addition of a horn section opens up The Jam sound to a wider audience beyond the parkas, bowling shoes & suede-heads. It was a smart move as it revealed his future direction into a world without Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler.

A1 Happy Together

A2 Ghosts

A3 Precious

A4 Just Who Is The Five O'Clock Hero?

A5 "Trans-Global Express"

B1 Running On The Spot

B2 Circus

B3 The Planners Dream Goes Wrong

B4 Carnation

B5 Town Called Malice

B6 The Gift