More Specials

The Specials is a frantic skank-romping good-time, More Specials is the subdued follow-up. It also branches out into more styles than the debut, which focused on the 2-tone/ska revival craze that they had helped usher in. Like the previous disc, More Specials opens up with a rocking cover of an older song, this time “Enjoy Yourself,” which gets a reprise at the end with the Go-go’s as guest vocalists. It was around this time that Terry Hall and Jane Wiedlin got into their affair and wrote “Our Lips Are Sealed,” but that’s another story and album. The sophomore effort is almost as good as, if slightly more uneven and less cohesive than, the debut. How did they manage this feat? Through sheer force of will, one would imagine. The bite and snarl of their music isn’t lost in the more pop leanings that debut here, and would come out in full-force on their next record. The most interesting new territory explored isn’t the Latin-tinged instrumental “Holiday Fortnight,” but the spaghetti western sounds of “Stereotypes.” Its familiar lyrical territory for the group, but it’s not less evocative or interesting. And Terry Hall could snap and put-down with the best of them. If Hall and Staples hadn’t had left the band shortly after this, who knows what the third record could have been like. DOWNLOAD: “Hey, Little Rich Girl”