Jam - Gift

Limited vinyl LP repressing of this album by the British mod/punk trio. The Gift is the sixth and final studio album by The Jam. It was originally released on 12 March 1982 by Polydor as the follow-up to The Jam's critically and commercially successful 1980 album Sound Affects. The songs were largely recorded during 1981 to 1982, assisted by Peter Wilson, and is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band's later work. It was one of the band's most successful studio albums, reaching #1 in the UK. The album moved away from the simple three-chord music of In the City and This Is the Modern World, and the more melodic All Mod Cons, Setting Sons and Sound Affects, to demonstrate Weller's love of northern soul. Funk bass lines and wah-wah guitar effects were often used throughout the album, along with jazz influences such as brass sections and saxophone solos (most notably on the track "Precious") and "Trans-Global Express". The biggest hit off the album was "Town Called Malice". The song's title riffs on the novel "A Town Like Alice" whilst it's lyrics lament disappearing aspects of stereotypical working class life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain. The message is not altogether negative though and the song stands as a potent rallying call to roll with the changes.