The Jam “This Is The Modern World” released on this date, November 18th, 1977. We’ve been watching The Jam: About the Young Idea, a documentary on Showtime, and the band spent a good deal of time talking about this album (as well as others of course). (I’m not finished watching it but I love that actor Martin Freeman has a prominent voice in the documentary; I keep picturing him as alternating between Bilbo Baggins, Dr. John Watson and Arthur Dent dressed up as a mod rocker and dancing to The Jam.) The band admitted it was rushed: their second release coming only 7 months after their first record in an attempt to mimic some 1960′s bands’ practice of releasing a couple albums each year. Despite their self-criticism (and that of the music critics), gems abound on the LP, including the single “The Modern World” which drips pissed-off young British working class sentiment and helped inspire the group’s place as a centerpiece to the British Mod revival (suits, scooters, etc.), “Life From a Window” and their cover of “In The Midnight Hour.” Our copy is the US version containing “All Around The World,” which The Jam originally released as a single before This Is the Modern World’s; it hit #13 on the UK charts.