Track Listing
1. Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)
2. Man At C & A
3. Hey Little Rich Girl
4. Do Nothing
5. Pearl's Cafe
6. Sock It To 'Em JB
7. Stereotype/Stereotypes Pt 2
8. Holiday Fortnight
9. I Can't Stand It
10. International Jet Set
11. Enjoy Yourself (Reprise)
Review
Another excellent album by the Specials, only this one is excellenter! Really this is some amazing evolution by the Specials. They showed us how competent they were as a band in their self-titled effort, but here they show us what an experimental and crazily talented band they are.
If you can imagine, which you probably can if you know their stuff like Ghost Town, this is an evolution from the Reggae and Ska stuff into something more uniquely Specially. There is something like a Portishead in amphetamines sound here, particularly on Man at C&A and Stereotype. Then there is some lovely pop with female vocal backup spread around the thing.
The instrumental sound is both retro and completely new in a way which would be further developed and slowed down by people like Massive Attack and Portishead, but this is fast, furious and fun. A truly great album by the Specials and an essential addition to anyone's library.
Track Highlights
1. I Can't Stand It
2. Pearl's Cafe
3. Man At C&A
4. Stereotype/Stereotypes Pt. 2
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Although More Specials was a hit in the two-tone movement, a late-1970s revival of Jamaican ska from the 1960s, it is broadly considered as one of the first 'lounge music' albums with far less emphasis on ska beats that its preceding album. Along with bands like the Bodysnatchers and Madness, The Specials would go on to be a leader in this revival, and later heroes for two further ska-punk revivals on the opposite side of the Atlantic: the late 1980s Southern California scene (NOFX, Operation Ivy) and the mid-1990s "third wave of ska" (Sublime, No Doubt) which popularised the mixture.
Stereotype:
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