Customer Reviews

More Specials

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

More Specials is definately not for every ska fan. In fact, this album is a mix match of so many different genres that I would not even call it a ska album. Whereas The Specials first album gets you up off your rear end and dancing this is a more contemplative album to really listen to. The album moves around from darker themes to the silly with an overriding feel of 60's kitsch. Another 2Tone classic.

Odd collection of tunes, more polished and varied than their first disc. Memorable and unique songs that stick with you. I've been listening to this stuff for 20 years and it doesn't grow old.

The Specials second album was a stylistic deviation from the same old ska stomp. It has a distinctively slick, sometimes campy, sometimes schmaltzy feel. The songs emphasize studio qualities and social messages over danceability, and they achieve a uniquely hip retro sound. It is a peculiar album, and I was hooked the first time I heard it. I like it better than their first album because it is so different. The people who thought this was a let down just don't get it - this album went somewhere no band ever went before and probably never will again. You have to be pretty cool to "get it".

More Specials is the type of album that I just can't say bad things about. Compared to the music being forced down our throats these days, music that doesn't know where it's going or is too wimpy to say anything, More Specials is a bright spot in a better past. Listen to it, not comparing it to the Specials first, but with an ear for quality. There's a lot there.

"International Jet Set" has probably become my favorite track. I also prefer the LP version of "Do Nothing" to the singles version. At first I kind of thought a couple of the tracks were annoying, but listening to a song as a whole instead of in parts reveals it's true quality. An underrated album for sure.

The Specials second album, and final before imploding, is called "More Specials" and gives the listener more, alright... maybe a little too much to digest. Jerry Dammers seems to have gone a bit crazy in the studio, as he produced the album and added multiple layers of keyboard, organ, vibes, synthesiser, melodica and whatever else he had lying around. I also assume the 'muzak' feel of "International Jet Set" and the mechanical drums on "I Can't Stand It" and "Stereotypes Part 2" are his doing as well. The stylistic menu is varied, including reggae ("Do Nothing"), retro fifties rock ("Hey, Little Rich Girl", "Pearl's Cafe"), new-wave pop ("I Can't Stand It") and even mariachi ("Holiday Fortnight"). Terry Hall's vocals sound great, especially on the anti-war "Man At C&A" and "International Jet Set", where his monotone delevery almost acts as another instrument. The group vibe is diminished, as most people have their own 'feature' song, like Roddy's "Rat Race", Lynval's "Do Nothing" and Neville's vocal overkill on "Stereotypes Part 2" and drummer John Bradbury's James Bond tribute "Sock it to 'Em J.B.". The Go Go's are even brought in for backing vocals on the "Enjoy Yourself" reprise (Terry co-wrote their hit "Our Lips are Sealed" and later covered it with his band Fun Boy Three, which included him, Lynval and Neville). Overall, it is a genre-shifting soup, with rockers like "Rat Race" alongside the moody bossa-nova of "Stereotypes". This is not altogether a bad thing, but proved the band had little time left. After the Dammers penned "Ghost Town" single, with offerings from Terry and Neville, the band went their separate ways. Roddy formed his retro-rock styled the Tearjerkers, Bradbury formed his own goofy and thankfully short-lived band, bassist Horace Panter joined with members of the English Beat to form General Public, Fun Boy Three formed with the Specials vocalists, and Dammers went on with the Special AKA. This, therefore was the Specials album swan song. For that, it was a success, but would not fare as well if they recorded others.

I agree with everybody else that the first Specials album was probably the greatest ska album ever--a fist-pumping pleasure from beginning to end. However, I cannot help but admire Jerry Dammers' artistic courage in refusing to repeat himself, and instead driving the band into new territory on this album. The result was a unique work--incorporating hard ska, dub, lounge singing, and muzak (!) influences into one really strange trip of a record.

Like the first record, it is a journey from beginning to end. But while the debut album was a studio recreation of a live gig, this is a dyspeptic trip into studio hell, opening with a lively cover of the standard "Enjoy Yourself", and ending in a sardonic port-mortem version of the same. In between the band meanders through all sorts of studio space, harsh and mellow, on their way to their ultimate demise, with the same biting lyrics (but darker here) and great playing that the band displayed on its debut.

It's fantasticly weird art-rock album, done by the world's best ska band. It's a terrific companion to the first record, and if the band pretty much dissolved afterward at least they finished playing their "A" game, in my opinion. If you wanted a repeat of the first record, well, small wonder that you're disappointed. But then, you would have been anyway.

I've had this record since 1982 and I still listen to it. While their untitled debut was a great ska defining record of its time More Specials is a classic with an incredible variation and vision of all times. Terribly unique and haunting (did someone say that?) this record embodies something which is truly hard to describe. I dig that! This is a true milliniem album and more.

I find that as I get older, one of the few 80's recordings that continues to interest me is The Specials "More Specials". The songs are more subtle - not the ear candy of their first recording.The songs Stereotype and Do Nothing are still fresh and pleasing to this ear. I liked it then and I like it now. Only a handfull of recordings from my youth have stood the test of time so well. That is why after selling my LP's, I am buying More Specials on CD!

Why do these record companies put out remasters and then remove a song or two from them? One has to wonder where Rat Race disappeared to? It isn't on this cd anymore. Oh, nevermind. I found it on the Hits disc. How Lame. They did the same thing with the remaster of English Beat. Don't buy this crappy version of this cd unless you either can't find the original issue or you absolutely have to have the video of Ghost Town (a pretty good vid) and Rat Race (a pretty crappy vid).

More Specials may not be as ambitious as London Calling, but if you look at it as just a fun album to play as you're driving, its a hell of a lot better than more reviewers would indicate. Its number one feature is its listenability - you won't find yourself fast-forwarding past annoying or boring songs - and if you're buying your music for something other than listenability, then you're probably buying it for the wrong reasons.