Album review: The Specials’ new album, Encore, is brilliant.

The Specials’ new album, Encore, is brilliant.

by rick olivares

Of the bands that emerged during the Two-Tone ska movement of the late 1970s to the early 1980s, it was the Specials who are perhaps the most lauded of the all. That is why when they embarked on their reunion tour of 2008, it was well-received with the excitement spilling on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. And that fact that Encore shot up to the top of the British album charts this past April as soon it was released really says something about them. And I am sure it isn’t only Generation Xers buying copies.

When was the last Specials album? That was 2001’s Conquering Ruler. Some might even argue that the true last album was 1980’s More Specials. In a recent interview, Specials vocalist Terry Hall specifically refers to Encore as the third album. That of course is up for debate.

Nevertheless, not since In the Studio (released in 1984) has there been excitement about a Specials album (this was credited to Special AKA) . Unfortunately, the Specials are now down to three – vocalist Terry Hall, vocalist and guitarist Lynval Golding, and bassist Horace Panter – with Danish musician Nikolaj Torp (keyboards and vocals), Steve Cradock (guitar), Kendrick Rowe (drums), Tim Smart (Trombone and tuba), and Pablo Mendelssohn (trumpet). Torp, who has performed with the band since 2009, especially makes his presence felt as he is a part of the songwriting process. 

It doesn’t matter though if three of the original line-up are around because Encore is a special album. Pun intended. 

However, the first thing you have to do when you listen to Encore is to disassociate any of the previous works especially their seminal debut and follow up, More Specials. If you figure that 40 years after that wondrous debut that knocked Britain for a loop, they would sound the same then think again. Because people change. Sounds and tastes change. If that is your purview, then you are in for a major disappointment.

On the other hand, if you open up your mind, you’ll find that Encore is a damn good album that approximates the brilliance of their self-titled debut albeit wrapped in poly-rhythms. Encore is a funk-inflected album with occasional reggae, ska, overtones. At times, I wondered if the Specials ventured into (reggae band) Third World territory. At times, it feels like listening to cousins of Blondie’ 1980s hit, “Rapture” complete with the disco vibe.

So free yourself of that notion and enjoy the album that just as it first did in 1979 when Tory politics, recession, poverty, unrest, war, racism, and immigration plagued the United Kingdom. While 40 years later, it seems that nothing has changed, the fire that lit the Specials hasn’t dissipated. The music though is closer to the styles they explored for the In the Studio album or even Hall’s own Fun Boy Three (after he left the Specials following their second album). 

The Specials share their thoughts once more about being one homogenous family regardless of race and color after the war is done (Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys), racism (BLM or Black Lives Matter that Golding narrates in spoken word fashion). “Vote for Me” touches on Brexit and is a dead ringer for “Ghost Town”. They cover Hall and Golding’s former band, Fun Boy Three (formed with former Specials mate Neville Staples) with “The Lunatics” and I love the heavier if not gloomier arrangement. 

In Side Two, the Specials find their true groove in this outing.

After “Blam Blam Fever,” they segue into “10 Commandments,” a dub track that features activist Saffiyah Khan also on spoken word to a wailing Hammond organ. If you recall, a photo of Khan was snapped during a standoff with a protester in 2017 while wearing a shirt by the Specials. And now she’s performing with them on one of the best tracks of Encore.

“Embarrassed By You” is a lovely song and the last two songs, “The Life and Times (of A Man Called Depression)” – that is about dealing with depression -- and “We Sell Hope” evoke the late inning home runs of the Clash’s Combat Rock (“Ghetto Defendant”, “Inoculated City” and “Death is A Star”). 

I should note that for all the pent-up anger of this album, the Specials opt to end Encore by taking an optimistic view in “We Sell Hope”. So aren’t you glad their back?

When the lads of the Specials first formed in 1979, they embraced Jamaican rhythms and imbued it with a gangly punk energy. Four decades later, the band – or what is left – makes use of everything they have picked up in the world since and come out with a brilliant and relevant album. It says that they don’t have to live on their old hits and can create new ones in this crazy times we live in.