All Mod Cons

The title is short for all modern conveniences, a housing-advert phrase that puns on the band's mod association. The cover shows the band in a bare room. It reached number 6 in the UK.

The Jam had toured America in 1978 supporting Blue Oyster Cult and were not well received, and This Is the Modern World had failed to reach the Billboard 200. Back in Britain, Weller had writer's block, and Chris Parry rejected the first batch of songs as sub-standard. Foxton later said the label's verdict hurt at first, but that an outside view was healthy. The band recorded a new set with Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, with Parry as associate producer.

The Kinks cover David Watts shows the British Invasion influence that runs through it. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, which Weller had thrown out over its arrangement, went to number 15. Weller said of Mr. Clean that class issues mattered to him then, and that Woking's stockbroker belt gave him the commuter images. The original vinyl printed neither the title nor the lyrics of English Rose, because Weller felt the words meant little without the music. American reissues swapped Billy Hunt for The Butterfly Collector.

The NME's Charles Shaar Murray called it several light years ahead of their earlier work, and Sounds critic Garry Bushell hailed its musical maturation and compositional strength. The NME ranked it second best album of 1978. Q placed it at number 50 in a 2000 list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever, and it appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. A 2006 CD reissue added a disc of b-sides, outtakes and demos, and a DVD with a 40-minute documentary by Don Letts.