Extras

Description

Product Description Pity the oft-neglected B-side. Often just a throwaway track designed to back up but not supersede a band's 'official' new release, by the time the single is filed away alphabetically, it's usually forgotten by even the most zealous collector. Unless of course the B-side is by seminal English mod revivalists The Jam, in which case a closer listen is not only warranted, but required. For The Jam packed their B-side songs with more fire and brimstone than most bands did the A-sides. Unfortunately the vinyl days of yore are but a memory. Fortunately, EXTRAS collects most of The Jam's odds and sods on disc for fans young and old. A bonus is Paul Weller's always-eclectic taste in covers, which runs from the Who ("So Sad About Us") to the Beatles ("And Your Bird Can Sing")to the godfather of soul himself, Mr. James Brown ("I Got You [I Feel Good]"). EXTRAS is valuable not only as a chronology of the gems that Weller was tossing off in his spare time, but as a look at how truly eclectic The Jam were as a band. Universal. .co.uk Compilation albums of b-sides and out-takes are notoriously hit-and-miss affairs, full of songs which have never been heard before for a good reason. Extras, however, is a treat. Released in 1992, with a sleeve-note by Oasis biographer and Paul Weller buddy Paolo Hewitt, any hint of band-wagon jumping in the light of the Gallagher's championing of Weller is immediately vanquished by the sheer quality of the opening three b-sides, which could have easily cut it as singles. Elsewhere, Weller shows where his musical allegiances lie with a series of covers of hits by everyone from The Beatles to The Small Faces to The Chi-lites, a version of Otis Redding's "Move On Up" being a highlight. Lesser moments are previously unheard songs "No One In The World" and "Hey Mister", but this is amply compensated for in a record crammed with tracks as fresh and vital as any on The Jam's studio albums. --Amber Cowan