Customer Reviews
Pretty Special - By: Paul A, 24 Aug 2006 
This is my favourite of the 2 Specials albums. 'More Specials' is quirkier, but this is equally fun & more up-tempo. I love to leap around to this record at every oportunity, (much to the annoyance of my neighbours). I could wiffle on about all of the profound lyrics & such & Terry Hall's deadpan style, but once you buy this record then you will find out for yourself. Suffice to say that this record is well worth getting for your collection. If you like that 2 tone sound, then it really doesn't get any better than this. And at this price it is a steal!!!!
A masterpiece yes - By: J. Smith, 01 Jun 2006 Whilst it is indeed masterpiece of pop creation & you really must own it. It is still only a pop creation, really very pop & i wouldn't really say it sounded "fresh" on every listen. Its good for a few plays, by which time it will all bein your head already - such is the quality of the songwriting. Buy, listen, love then place on a shelf & hum.
A Classic. - By: , 13 Feb 2006 This is without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest albums ever recorded. If your are into Punk or Ska this really is a must buy.
A Classic of Musical Re-Invention. Brilliant ! - By: , 25 Sep 2004 The Specials album is & was without doubt, a fantastic album. Anyone with any appreciation for music whatsoever, should buy this. The beats are great, the lyrics are great, the tunes are great. A great shame so much of our modern music is so dull & spiritless compared to music like this. As much a breath of fresh air as it was all those years ago. Superb !!!!!
Am i missing something of the first hand Ska experience? - By: russell clarke, 15 Aug 2004 
Having recently decided to correct one or two oversightsin my music collection I bought this C.D. Ska was one of the few genres that passed me by originally.( The other being jazz funk which I've never considered a great loss.) Of course I heard all the singles & I even bought some of them but really I was far too pale & interesting & well dull to really explore music that despite it's often serious subject matter often seemed to me an excuse to indulgein lots of silly knees up dancing.
This 2002 re-mastered version of the 1979 debut album by The Specials seemed to me the perfect place to start. "Ghost Town" is after all one of the greatest number 1,s of all time while "Gangsters" is a superbly idiosyncratic song. Plus it's produced by a sprightly youth called Elvis Costello which is something I never knew till I read it on these very pages. ...And it's great, with some truly wonderful songs & an irresistible energy & laconic humour. However I don't think it's quite the all-out masterpiece that many of my fellow reviewers think it is, & I think I know why. The live cuts ,"Monkey Man" off this album & the single version of "Too Much Too Young" exude a tremendous blast of the hedonistic verve & sense of communal spirit that existed around the Ska scene & i, never experienced that first hand soin a sense I'm coming into this album cold & lacking the empirical knowledge of the Ska experience..
It's taut wired energy seems to be lifted straight from the aftermath of punk & the genesis of the new-wave movement but thrownin with rhythms of reggae, which of course bands like The Clash had already incorporated into their sound, & elements of dub & R & B it's an intoxicating mix & when it all gels together it's fantastic., but I found some of the material here a little repetitive (Which is one of the problems I have with reggae.) & one or two of the songs a touch mundane. "Too Hot" & "Blank Expression" are prime examples of this.
Mainly though this is terrific stuff." Concrete Jungle", "Little Bitch", "Nite Klub" & "You're Wondering Know" which sounds like a track off Enos,s "Here Comes the Warm Jets" particularly. Even the six minute version of "Too Much Too Young" though lacking the vivacious outrage of the live single version is great. "A Message to You Rudy" still sounds fresh as well.
I really missed out when I pompously ignored this stuff first time round & now I'm way too old to do the silly knees up dance............I think.
