More Specials

The Specials are so fun, I love their sound. I hear lots of what inspired Gorillaz phase 1 in this one.

Yeah really enjoyable 3.9

Decent old skool ska

Like Belle & Sebastian if they weren’t the whitest band in the world

Pretty interesting music with some ska flavor.

Nice album

Ska. Alegre. Divertido.

High energy Ska. Singing not very melodic. Not for me.

This is ska. Not a genre I normally listen to, but it works as background music.

Madness was much better band.

First forray into ska music. Interesting and not bad.

Decent album but nothing special (no pun intended), some good songs, some bad. I would give it 2,5/5 if possible.

Wasn't as special

Good vibes. Almost reggae pop?

Pretty boring aside from a couple tracks, the debut is infinitely superior

Pretty good

It was alright. I tried to like it more but couldn’t. 2 stars lol

The Specials- More Specials (1980): 7/10 Starts off on a bouncy ska sorta tone and continues to fuse many different genres throughout the album, utilizing many different instruments. Really weird, but in a good way. Probably not something I’d listen to in my spare time, but definitely a fun and interesting one time listen.

Good. Enjoyed the style

Ska is not my thing it turns out.

This is another ska album of The Specials with fine songs, but the quality and energy compared to their debut album makes it a bit disappointing.

Finally an album i know! Still a classic.

some good tunes on here, but the beginning couple songs seemed a bit muddy vocally. still enjoyed the project though.

Ich hab zwar wenig Ahnung von ska. Aber das hier sollen die Wurzeln davon sein.

genuinely was enjoying! lol

Ska Klassiker und fast schon genre begründend.

Almost done with the album. This was just a fun listen. It's a bit trippy but I like it. I'll rate either a 3 or 4.

Enjoyed

Super fun ska.

звучит хорошо, но немного нудно

4/5

I've heard of the Specials before but hadn't ever actually listened in. I really dig this. Before listening I was thinking they were Reggae and was surprised but not surprised to find out that it was Ska! I know of the roots of Ska but had never done my homework enough to actually listen in. Very much helped me place other Reggae inspired bands like the Slits in the London scene. So many jams on this record with a fun spectrum of influences. I look forward to tuning into their first album. All are good but top tracks go to Hey Little Rich Girl, Stereotype, and Sock it to 'em JB. Only last note is that I'd like to do more research on the politics of the lyrics!

Sounds very dated now. But still, an enjoyable listen

Love it. Funky dancehall and ska that’s aged perfectly

Feels like some elevator music, but an elevator in a weird fever dream that never really ends, but there is a fun dude dancing in the elevator with you so it’s okay.

🤔

Greatest showman

Not my style

Álbum ecléctico, donde predomina el ska primigenio, 2 tones y punk, precursor del trip hop. Entretenido.

four star album! fun poppy rasta

My only familiarity with The Specials is from their appearance on Saturday Night Live back in 1980, which I really enjoyed at the time--it was fun and high energy. So, on to More Specials, the Specials' second album. I loathe pub singalongs, so album opener Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) left me cold with it's overly busy, fumbling arrangement and belted choruses. Fortunately, the Specials are more competent than the opening tune would indicate. Man At C & A demonstrates their mastery of the dub style, with some spaghetti western affectations. With Hey Little Rich Girl, they're back to ska. The vocals and lyrics are very punk -- it's an interesting combination. For me, the Specials' version of ska is a little clumsy and on the nose compared to the Jamaican original, but I understand the appeal. Clearly The Specials love, love, love Jamaican music and have made a real effort to understand it. It's an extension of Britain's appreciation of Jamaican music, exemplified by the absolutely fantastic Tighten Up series, which I highly recommend if you have even a passing interest in Jamaican popular music of the late 60s and early 70s. The rest of More Specials proceeds along the same lines, a British working class take on ska and it's variations. For me, it's largely superfluous. I'd rather listen to the real thing.

Okay Ska-ish. They're 2nd wave (I think; this album 1980), so not quite as good as first-wave stuff, IMHO. Still, I like the sound generally, so 3/5.

Really interesting. The first few tracks I thought really sounded muddy and like they were recorded in a garage or something. The later tracks seemed better. Not sure I love it, but it wasn't bad overall.

Not quite up to the standard of the debut album, but a good album nonetheless. Diluted a little by the variety of styles but still an enjoyable listen.

Brutal.

This album really surprised me. It's different from anything I usually listen to and very different from anything else I've heard from this list but it goes hard. A lot of it has a 50s or 60s vibe but you can tell that it's from the 80s which is very cool to hear in the 2020s. I also like how it goes from being very upbeat and happy to rather dark and morbid by the end of the album. Enjoy Yourself is rather upbeat for the dark theme and it's fantastic. Then Man at C&A has warnings of a nuclear attack but is still energetic. I love the saxophone on Hey, Little Rich Girl because of course I do. Do Nothing features a strange piano part that gives an otherwise upbeat song a minor sound and a TROMBONE SOLO! Pearl's Cafe continues the trend of depressing lyrics with a cheery musical background, this time complete with a cheesy glockenspiel. It almost feels like carnival music (a carnival with people singing "it's all a load of bollocks"). But I would say that Stereotype is when the album really loses its cheerful disguise. I Can't Stand It continues this and International Jet Set ends with a plane crash leading into a much darker version of Enjoy Yourself to close off the album. Favorite songs: Enjoy Yourself; Hey, Little Rich Girl; Pearl's Cafe; Sock It to 'Em, J.B.; I Can't Stand It Least favorite songs: None Strong 8/10

Wide variety of music here. Some horns and reggae too. Which came first Specials or Aqua Bats?

Not horrible, but noy really that good. The music tries to be upbeat for the most part, but it’s a bit of a ska, reggae, pop- rock mess. 2.5 stars, and rounding down because there isn’t one song or riff that I want hear again.

Not my style... but listening nonetheless Suffering through this Don't like Not my style "I can't stand it" is nearly unlistenable. The female harmony is f*cking awful.

No siempre lo ecléctico y extraño me parece bueno, por lo general sí me lo parece, pero en esta ocasión no. Creo que la que me gustó fue Man at C&A. Mood: LOL

In my opinion, far from its predecessor. A bunch of good songs, bu pretty average overall.

Diverse album, with just a solid set of tracks. Very fun, and I could see it growing on me for sure.

Músicas divertidíssimas!

Hey, you are using my project.

fun album, nothing getting me too excited though. I doubt I'd turn it off it came on the radio.

Good refresher and enjoyable Ska.

Impossible not to get moving to the Specials.

Old ska sounds. Not that great. 3/10.

No le encontré mucho lo especial (*duh*), pero es un disco chistosón hasta cierto punto. De repente hay sonidos que se lucen, pero sobre todo lo sentí así, ligero, entretenido. Como música para no tomarse en serio, pero hecha por gente que sabe de música. Al principio pensé que iba a ser todo con vibras un poco de reggae, pero luego se fue diluyendo. Me divirtieron "Stereotype/Stereotype, Pt. 2" y "International Jet Set". Le doy 7.5/10.

Some interesting sounds here and there, ska overall does turn me off though.

Ca ne ma pas vraiment marque, un peu reggea un peu funk je ne sais plus trop. 2.75

Wild time. Album was all over the place and just a lot of fun. Favorite tracks: “Man at C&A” and “Sock It To ‘Em”

The specials were my first album I got when we starting this adventure before we made the group. And let me tell you I did not need more specials

Some songs I moderately enjoyed, while others were horribly obnoxious. I still pray that there will never be a fourth wave of Ska.

Second half made up for the first

definitely different ska than I'm used to but I dug it! A few standouts, and nothing that rubbed me wrong. Neat!

Pretty good! Enjoyed this.

Lovely. Love steady rock steady be steady.

This is corny. It’s try hard and “edgy”. Not for me

Never heard of them before, although some of the song titles were familiar. Interesting reggae and The Clash feels.

Took me right back to my ska days in high school. Would have preferred their first self titled album from ‘79 more, but this one had a lot of the same feel.

Yessir

I am not a fan of this one. They sound like their competent musicians(especially the keyboards, which sound amazing and the horns were good too) but it seems like this is a bunch of friends jamming in a dive bar for the free drinks.The singing isn't too good (and is washed out at times " do nothing" by the instruments)and the whole Ska idea is lost on me. I mean it's not terrible but it seems the song all pass through me as backround music and there isn't anything of note for me here.

Meh. Maybe the extended version left a bunch of stuff that didn’t need to be there. Kinda lame. I thought I liked the specials though

Pretty ok

10/10

Upbeat pop with enough of a wink and a nod to stop it becoming grating. The decision to consciously make muzak for the pop charts is quite a mad one, and you've gotta respect that. Still, not really my kind of thing.

For me there were no familiar songs on this album

Eccentric album, a song about James Bond? Reggae? Feels very British, sounds semi-Caribbean. Not particularly my cuppa.

This was a fun listen. I liked it a lot.

Very odd and quirky album, catchy at times

2

Never listened to this is full. Pretty solid all round album with some real classics in the mix

The styles on this album are a mish-mash of bleh. A lot of it has a ska feel, which has never been my favorite, and the rest was unappealing enough to make me almost turn it off. I finished it, and I like it slightly better than the Elvis album, but not enough to give it a 2-star rating.

I liked this record. The contrast of styles coming from the different band members; the variation between some instruments sounding live 'in-the-room', and the more polished close-miked sound of others; the dark themes set to upbeat music. A solid and enjoyable listen (3.3)

I don't think I've ever listened to Ska before

Approachable ska, soul-rock album. Not really something I personally enjoy, but the album was fine. Stand-outs: International Jet Set

Kind of strange, not really my cup of tea, kind of goofy and bouncy.

It's very catchy!

Great album, lots of great groovy tracks. Standout Tracks: Man at C&A, Hey Little Rich Girl, Stereotype / Stereotype Pt. 2, I Can't Stand It, International Jet Set