Jolt: Scottish Punk and Pop

Mod revival stuff pretty often gets slagged off for a few reasons. Firstly, the genre as represented by late seventies’ era groups is a bit too reverential to be considered original and artful. But coming out of the punk scene, more than a few of these groups watched countless acts play basically the same song over and over again with only vaguely different lyrics. The other problem people have with that crop of mod related groups is that the RnB quotient being ratcheted up so high and its accompanying attempts at harmonizing renders otherwise tough compositions to flaccid junk. Both of those issues take with the genre are obviously difficult to argue away. But the fact that the Sex Pistols saw fit to plain old rip off the Jam says something about the movement.

Jolt aren’t well known beyond folks who were around either in Glasgow during 1976 or London during the latter portion of the decade. There’re probably myriad reasons for that – one being, the band broke up before the mod thing had chance to blossom into a huge market, even if for just a few years. Dogged by comparisons to the Jam, Jolt didn’t really get a fair shake at things being too poppy for punk and too punky – even with matching suits – for the mod crowd.

Either way, the group was able to issue a few fine sides even as Jolt’s lone, proper long player wasn’t the most engaging slab of music released in 1978. Issued through Polydor, also the Jam’s imprint, the self titled effort didn’t surpass chart positions previously held by Jolt’s singles. In fact, nothing was every really hugely popular despite a rather decent stage show.

A handful of efforts from the long player are, though, rife with cut rate RnB rave ups. Efforts like “Decoyed,” though, are thoroughly entertaining as the track sits a bit closer to the punk side of things even as it sports something of a guitar solo. But in hearing this specific track, it’s hard to figure why a few more stabs at the formula didn’t end in something like success.

Usually cited as one of the group’s better efforts “See Saw,” released as a part of Jolt’s second single, doesn’t even live up to the aforementioned “Decoyed” even as it sprung from Paul Weller’s pen.

 

Even with the endorsement of such luminaries, Jolt just packed it up and threw it away, being relegated to a reissue almost thirty years after first recording. It coulda been worse, but it coulda been better.