The Specials - Disc of the day

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The Specials
More Specials

(2-Tone, 1980)

Coventry’s punk-reggae prime movers muscle in on Vic Silvester territory, scream their (almost) last scream.

The sleeve photo of More Specials was taken in a Travelodge in Leamington Spa. Inside the original vinyl LP was a free poster from the same photoshoot, but while this was crisp and sharp, the sleeve looks like it’s been made deliberately washed out and blurred - was this an indication of how much the group, exhausted by intensive pan-global touring and then expected to record their second album, was fraying? And there was more evidence of turmoil when you listened to it. With Enjoy Yourself and Hey Little Rich Girl, there’s still boots-on skanking on offer, but leader Jerry Dammers had introduced a queasy, paranoid variant of cod-exotic muzak to the mix. Using the pre-set rhythms on his Yamaha home organ, the results achieved a sublime kind of madness; hear the jump cuts between alcoholic horrorshow Stereotype (the Red Army do the bossa nova with a mariachi band), the obscenely jaunty, doorbell-ringing Pearl’s Café and the spy flick anguish of International Jet Set, and it’s clear that however inscrutable his methods, Chairman Jerry knew what he was doing. You can discern a theme of sorts – to the background noise of failed affairs, there is no escape from your imperfect life – but while it seemed they were threatening to end it all, The Specials would last another nine months, ending on the astonishing high of Ghost Town in 1981.

Ian Harrison

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 08/05/2008

Further Listening

Portishead – Dummy (Go! Discs, 1994)

Madness – Presents The Rise And Fall (Stiff, 1982)

The Sabres Of Paradise – Haunted Dancehall (Warp, 1994)

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