Sold Date: July 17, 2020
Start Date: July 7, 2020
Final Price: £17.99 (GBP)
Bid Count: 10
Seller Feedback: 2980
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Setting Sons is a 1979 album by British band , their fourth since  in 1977. It reached No. 4 in the , continuing the commercial (and critical) favour that had begun with their previous album .

The sole single from Setting Sons, "", became the group's first top 10 UK hit, peaking at No. 3.

In contrast to its pop-oriented predecessor, Setting Sons features a much harder, tougher production, albeit with the emphasis on melody common throughout The Jam's discography. Arguably, this is the Jam's most thematically ambitious LP. Singer, guitarist and songwriter originally conceived Setting Sons as a  detailing the lives of three boyhood friends who later reunite as adults after an unspecified war, only to discover they have grown both up and apart. This concept was never fully developed and it remains unclear which tracks were originally intended as part of the story, although it is commonly agreed that "Thick As Thieves", "Little Boy Soldiers", "Wasteland" and "Burning Sky" are likely constituents; extant Jam bootlegs feature a version of "Little Boy Soldiers" split into three separate recordings, possible evidence that the song was intended to serve as a recurring , with separate sections appearing between other songs on the album.

The album was musically ambitious as well. "Little Boy Soldiers" consists of several movements, reminiscent of compositions by . "Wasteland" unconventionally features a . Even more striking is 's "". The song was originally released as the B-side of the non-LP single "" three months before the album's release; on Setting Sons it is re-recorded in an all-strings arrangement, save a little electric guitar in the . According to the liner notes of the  box set, the revamping of "Smithers-Jones" was suggested by drummer .

The liner notes also imply that the album was a somewhat rushed effort, which may explain why the original underlying concept was not fully developed, as well as the inclusion of cover songs and prior releases: "Smithers-Jones" had already been released; "" is a  of the '  hit. Since "The Eton Rifles" was released in advance of the LP for promotional purposes, this leaves only seven entirely new original songs on the album.

The album cover art features a photograph of ' bronze sculpture The St John's Ambulance Bearers. Cast in 1919, it depicts a wounded soldier being carried by two ambulance workers. The sculpture is currently in the possession of the  in London.

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