Gold Soundz: "In The City"

“In The City”, from The Jam’s debut album of the same name, is a bristling call to arms that overflows with youthful enthusiasm and probably more than its share of naiveté. The band pounds out its simple chords with pinpoint accuracy, and Paul Weller scrambles through the taut 2:20 running time as if your life depends on it. Though never as prolific as mid-60s Who, when The Jam hit their mark they were every bit as powerful and ferocious.

If this was recorded during the video-era I could picture him parting a busy city street with a Moses-like single-mindedness. Like Richard Ashcroft in that Verve video, only with a fervor instead of apathy. Weller’s probably a foot shorter so he’d have to fight twice as hard to get half the distance. He’d be running, pushing, jumping, and he’d be yelling his song. It’d be like a Rocky-scene, every shining face chasing him down the street, singing along. Someone new to believe in.

MP3 - In The City
(from In The City. Buy here)
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This is the latest in a fairly new series of posts featuring songs among my favorites of all time. “Gold Soundz” because it’s cool to have a “feature” that rips off a not-at-all obscure Pavement song.

Previously: Gimme Back My Dog
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