Sound Affects
by The Jam
Listen & Collect
Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.
The Jam bestography
Sound Affects is ranked 2nd best out of 22 albums by The Jam on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Jam is All Mod Cons which is ranked number 775 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 2,226.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Sound Affects on YouTube
Sound Affects track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Sound Affects rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | bonnequestion | Top 27 Music Albums of 1980 | 18/27 | 2 |
| 2026 | jonny5244 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 29/100 | 14 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 101-200 Greatest Music Albums | 78/100 | - |
| 2026 | juanr1096 | Top 57 Music Albums of 1980 | 25/57 | 3 |
| 2026 | Foxforce5 | Top 25 Music Albums of 1980 | 16/25 | 2 |
| 2026 |  Norman Bates | Top 100 Music Albums of 1980 | 32/100 | 3 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Top 93 Music Albums of 1980 | 34/93 | 3 |
| 2026 | wizardalien | Top 81 Music Albums of the 1980s | 54/81 | 7 |
| 2026 |  Leonard | Top 100 Music Albums of 1980 | 56/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | daCritic | Top 40 Music Albums of 1980 | 12/40 | 4 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 314 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 1,749 | |||
Sound Affects collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 210 members
Sound Affects ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 401 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 5 days ago | Mrump | 550 | 75/100 |
| ! | 10/08/2026 16:55 | wizardalien | 919 | 48/100 |
| ! | 09/17/2026 06:44 |  ssteve | 2,635 | 76/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 78.2/100, a mean average of 77.2/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 78.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.3.
Sound Affects favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 65 members
Sound Affects forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/01/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5452): By LittleM1971View latest topic →
neilgee 04/05/2026 06:00 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) BestEverAlbums 12/01/2024 17:00 in Monthly overall chart movements - November 2024View latest topic →
View all forum mentions
Sound Affects comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
The last truly classic Jam album, sound affects in another tour de force from Weller and co. Full of great songs including, that's entertainment, set the house ablaze, and, pretty green. Start, is a good track but how on earth Weller didn't get sued for it's similarity to a Beatles song is simply unbelievable. A great album then, full of energy and melody, as you would expect from The Jam. (Edited)
The Jam's best album, a document to the incredible creative and popular peak they were riding at the time, which absolutely holds up to this day. There is an omission: the original (U.S.) release included a bonus 7" of the amazing double sided single "Going Underground/Dreams of Children". It would have been nice to see that included on the later CD releases. Docked 1/2 star for what could have been.
My top jam Album. Great production, crashing treble zing guitars, shown as recording them surrounded by corrugated steel sheets. High quality tunes with great skill in song crafting on show. (Edited)
babyBlueSedan TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/25/2016 19:46 | #162523 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
This is an undeniably catchy album that manages to make absolutely no impression on me. All the songs have great beats but they seem to be lacking in some way. It reminds me of Gang of Four or Soft Boys, but without the piercing guitars or biting lyrics that both of those bands brought to the table. Additionally, some of these songs seem pretty half-baked and pad out their running times by repeating the same parts over and over again. It's an album I don't want to turn off but one I can't remember anything from now even though I listened to it about 10 minutes ago.
This album is mixed bag, there are ones of their best like Set The House Ablaze and That's Entertainment, but there are some filler ones as well. (Edited)
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
