Album Review

Bruce Foxton – Back In The Room

• 28th Sep 2012

Bruce Foxton’s last solo album was 1983’s Touch Sensitive. The former bassist from The Jam hasn’t exactly been idle though, playing in a whole host of bands including Stiff Little Fingers, The Casbah Club and From The Jam along with (until recently) original Jam drummer Rick Buckler.

His rather good new solo album is notable for a number of things, not least the superb bass guitar work that runs through every track. Foxton’s fingers fly up and down that old Rickenbacker in typically fluid style. The quality of the vocals is very good too. While most people will think of Paul Weller in relation to The Jam, it was Foxton who sang on songs like This Is The Modern World and David Watts, so it should be no surprise. And the quality of the songwriting is also excellent. Again no surprise there as Foxton wrote Modern World, Smithers-Jones and several other well known Jam tracks.

The Jam were one of the seminal bands of the late seventies and early eighties, straddling the punk and new wave eras with some of the very best music of the time. Foxton’s contribution to the band cannot be overestimated and he was a great foil for Welller, especially on stage where they were always superb. I remember a great performance at the long gone and much lamented Glasgow Apollo back in the day …

Talking of Mr Weller, he does make an appearance here, which includes playing piano on the first single Number Six, a lovely uptempo pop sounding track that follows the instrumental opener Ride. Weller appears on three tracks playing at various times Hammond organ, piano, guitar, flute and glockenspiel.

Don’t Waste My Time is a lovely soulful song and features Steve Cropper (Booker T and the MGs, The Blues Brothers and others) on guitar, as well as Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) on sax. It has a sixties feel but with a modern twist as the bass line cuts through the mix powerfully.

Window Shopping is another upbeat track, this time with a bite to it through a lovely guitar part, before Glad I Found My Tears slows things again, a tender song that rises and falls nicely. Another instrumental, The Wide Open Road, comes next, the bass and drums driving the music forward relentlessly.

There are several rock tracks in the second half of the album that have a Jam feel to them, with the fast pace and tremendous energy that typified the band evident. The sharp vocals, the big choruses and, most of all, the fast bass work that is Foxton’s trade mark are all in there. Find My Way Home, the bluesy toned The Gaffa and, perhaps the best track on the album, Coming On Strong all fall into this category. All three are excellent songs well delivered, as is Reflection which again has some fine guitar work.

But there are slower tracks too. The acoustic Drifting Dreams and the closing Senses of Summer which is almost an electric folk song are also eminently listenable. They show another side to Foxton’s songwriting, a more tender approach.

This is a fine album, full of variety and offering up twelve great songs. Bruce Foxton is clearly the main man but he has assembled an all star cast to surround him and they all play their parts well. Foxton has managed to maintain the delicate balance between looking back to his rich musical past while also creating songs that sound new and fresh and the results are well worth hearing.

It is great to have Bruce Foxton now Back In The Room. Mind you, did he ever really leave it?