Q: In your estimation, did The Jam or The Style Council or any Paul Weller enterprise produce a great album? A: Near-great, perhaps, if one is especially disposed toward the decidedly Brit-centric, Who/Kinks/Small Faces-derived pleasures of the Jam albums IN THE CITY (1977), ALL MOD CONS (1979), or SETTING SONS (1980), although the narrow, immediately-anachronistic …
When Style Council came out with its first record, Bruce, the biggest Jam fan I knew, shook his head sadly. He may never have uttered the word, but hanging over his head was an acid green thought bubble containing the word, “sellout.” Bruce had a Mosaic sense of pop ethics, and when he came down …