It’s an unequivocal triumph on an album that mixes the great and the so-so, the former outweighing the latter enough to appease fans, if not, one suspects, ex-bandmates. There’s something appealingly odd about the music that supports Hall’s examination of his struggles with mental health on The Life and Times.
A cover of the Equals’ Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys is a tip of the hat to Eddy Grant’s pioneering multiracial band, and unlike anything the Specials have released before, offering impressively taut funk in the place of Jamaican rhythms. You may miss the great toasting from Neville and the pure ska look of Dammers but move on.Įncore is at its best when it leaves the Specials’ past behind and faces forward. Just remember, they all had an input, and to me Terry Hall was that crucial element with his unique vocal that sounds so familiar even today. They were a crucial part to the band at that time, however things move on. The purists out there will say oooh, The Specials aren’t The Specials without Jerry Dammers or Neville Staple Ok, point taken. After 37 years from the release of Ghost Town, The Specials are back with Terry Hall, Lynval Golding, Horace Panter and co with this modern uptake on life in Britain and how it’s (not) changed much from the bleak times of the late seventies, early eighties. You wouldn’t expect the ’70s’ premier ska-punk band to return after 20 years out of the studio having transformed themselves into a cutting edge psych grime act – ‘Encore’ essentially mingles mellowed ska and reggae with funk disco, Latin hints and spoken-word pieces – but initially you might fear their socio-political edge has dulled it may not be for everyone but for most the album they waited for.
Get backstage sneak peeks and a true view into our world as the fun and games unfold.Like most fans, i can say its a shame original members Staples, Byers and Dammers aren't on this but its a good album with a serious message.
Follow Clash Magazine as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and photo shoots. Join us on Vero, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Remarkably, it’s everything we’d want from a Specials album in 2019… and more. Having lost Jerry Dammers, Neville Staple, and Roddy Radiation since their reformation, and with drummer John Bradbury dying in 2015, the cards were stacked against the band – yet from the very first note ‘Encore’ is superb, a joyous, addictive experience. Retaining the pop immediacy that has always made them so striking The Specials are able to root this in contemporary issues, challenging themselves and the culture around them at every turn. Her vocal on ‘Ten Commandments’ flips the mysoginistic lyrics of the Prince Buster original, calling out sexist views in mainstream culture and everyday life while The Specials’ developed a spaced out, psych-tinged dub groove. Terry Hall is strikingly open about mental health issues on ‘The Life And Times (Of A Man Called Depression)’, and perhaps the album’s most striking guest spot belongs to Saffiyah Khan, the activist who faced down an EDL facist wearing a Specials t-shirt. Lynval Goulding reflects on his parents’ experiences as Caribbean immigrants on ‘B.L.M.’ - Black Lives Matter, it’s a statement that these stories of Black British history, and Black British community, should never be forgotten, minimised, or discarded.
Opening with a cover of The Equals’ plea for peace ‘Black Skinned Blue Eyed Boys’ the album is at its most affecting when it becomes personal. Indeed, political spectres haunt ‘Encore’ in its entirety. ‘Vote For Me’ is a rock solid groove, it’s slinking reggae rhythm underpining a wonderfully deadpan vocal from Terry Hall, in which he ruthlessly dissects the bankrupt motivations of a political class intent on driving British hopes and ambitions off a cliff-edge. It comes after those lengthy re-union tours, and more than a little of this energy is sprinkled on ‘Encore’. The Specials’ first album in four decades, it’s a ruthlessly entertaining, hugely outspoken, inspired and inspiring experience, one that doffs its cap to those iconic opening statements while remaining resolutely rooted in 2019.