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The group had stormed the British charts in 1979 with a brash, high energy brand of pop ska. But on this album keyboardist Jerry Dammers starts to become their production mastermind. Damners' favourite musical textures are odd and particularly British: basic rhythm boxes, brass sections in full cry, and a variety of cheesy keyboards and fairground and cinema organs.
There's a brace of very strong songs with very good tunes. Two of them sounded even better as hit singles: 'Stereotypes' and 'Do Nothing'. But others are good enough to be hits too: the kitchen sink drama of 'I Just Can't Stand It', the sad tale of 'Pearl's Café'.
While the tunes are jolly, the lyrics are bleak. English life is portrayed in all its drab, suffocating despair and there's no way out. The 'Poor Little Rich Girl' escapes to London only to end up in porn films. The air flight of 'International Jet Set' is a claustrophobic nightmare which ends with the passengers screaming as the plane crashes. The irony of the two versions of 'Enjoy Yourself' is very black indeed. It's certainly accurate; life in Britain wasn't much fun around then. But there are times when this unremitting gloom tips over into self-parody. And the second, dub half of Stereotypes is self-indulgent, while 'Sock It To 'Em JB' and 'Holiday Fortnight' are filler.
The album sounds like a first draft of the Specials finest hour. Nine months later, Dammers organised all the different elements here together into 'Ghost Town', one of the greatest number one singles in UK pop history. After that the group fragmented. So More Specials has lots of quality, and is almost a classic. --Nick Reynolds
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Customer Reviews
And yet this album (sorry, but it is an album - if ever a recording was to be split into sides, this was it)stands strong to this day. The writing was much more spread out amongst band members than on the first & also not as reliant on covers,and as a result sounds more mature & personal.
Also -and I think this is very important- the whole thing just jumps out as a reaction to the time it was recorded. In answer to one of the other reviewers, 1980 was a stinky old year indeed (I might've only been 13 then, but it very much filtered through to me & my peers) & this really is the soundtrack to those times. In fact, the cynic in me suggests that its not that out of place right now! If one song on this record encapsulates 1980, then for me its 'Do Nothing' which outside of 'Ghost Town' really summed up the mood of the Specials & their social commentary.
And yet despite the phrase 'why the long face?' not being in circulation until Terry Hall came along, this record is far from po-faced. 'Sock It to em JB' is sheer quality northern soul brass filled floor pounding moving music, and 'Holiday Fortnight' can't help but make me crack up whenever i play it.
Make no mistake, with the two studio albums the Specials recorded with this line-up, they left an imprint on the history of English music that would be the envy of many (all?) of their peers. They really were that important. But the music still stands up today, and this album really does deserve to be re-evaluated as it always seems to be in the shadows of their debut & I'm glad I can see that with the other reviewers here I'm not alone in recognising what a great recording this still is.
Making a welcome return to my music collection, More Specials is such an overlooked gem. I notice it did make it into "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" but you are unlikely to find it in a top 50 or 100 list.
It's difficult to put into words why this album is such a treat. It's somehow timeless, borrowing from the '60s and '70s, rooted in the '80s but not out of place in the '90s and '00s. In fact, it doesn't sound at all dated. I recommend playing along side the likes of Massive Attack, Gorillaz and Lilly Allen, all clearly inspired and influenced by The Specials.
Finally, a word to the wise. Check the small print on the back of the CD and buy the enhanced CD which includes original videos of Ghost Town and Rat Race - two very special singles.
The track that I love the most has to be stereotype because it summed up the youth culture at that time what a pity the new romantic era soon followed and men deciced that this kind of 'fashion'should be replaced with frilly shirts and makeup!
I still have all of the specials(and special aka)original singles and albums but have replaced them on cd so as not to overplay them.
The Specials live, though I did see Madness, Bad Manners.. Read more
predominantly ska influenced tracks of the first... Read more
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