Setting Sons
| Setting Sons | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by The Jam | ||||
| Released | 16 November 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 15 August 1979 – 10 October 1979 | |||
| Studio | The Townhouse Studios, Shepherds Bush, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 32:31 | |||
| Label | Polydor | |||
| Producer | Vic Coppersmith-Heaven | |||
| The Jam chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
| Smash Hits | 9/10 |
| The Village Voice | B+ |
Setting Sons is the fourth studio album by British band The Jam. The group's critical and commercial favour began with their preceding album All Mod Cons, and continued through this album. Setting Sons reached No. 4 in the UK Albums Chart.
The sole single from Setting Sons, "The Eton Rifles," became the group's first top 10 UK hit, peaking at No. 3.
In contrast to its pop-oriented predecessor, Setting Sons features a much harder, tougher production, albeit with the overarching melodicism common throughout The Jam's discography. Arguably, this is the Jam's most thematically ambitious LP. Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Paul Weller originally conceived Setting Sons as a concept album detailing the lives of three boyhood friends who later reunite as adults after an unspecified war only to discover they have grown up and apart. This concept was never fully developed, and it remains unclear which tracks were originally intended as part of the story, though it is commonly agreed that "Thick As Thieves", "Little Boy Soldiers", "Wasteland", and "Burning Sky" are likely constituents; extant Jam bootlegs feature a version of "Little Boy Soldiers" split into three separate recordings, possible evidence that the song was intended to serve as a recurring motif, with separate sections appearing between other songs on the album.
The album was musically ambitious as well. "Little Boy Soldiers" consists of several movements, reminiscent of compositions by The Kinks. "Wasteland" features the unconventional instrument of the recorder. Even more striking is Bruce Foxton's "Smithers-Jones". The song was originally released as the B-side to the non-LP single "When You're Young" three months before the album's release, and is here redone in an all-strings arrangement, save a bit of electric guitar in the coda. According to the liner notes of the Direction Reaction Creation box set, the revamping of "Smithers-Jones" was suggested by drummer Rick Buckler.
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