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| vinyl cover |
release date: May 16, 1980
format: vinyl (BEAT 1) / cd (1990 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,95]
producer: Bob Sargeant
label: Arista / Go Feet - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Mirror in the Bathroom" (4 / 5) - 2. "Hands Off… She’s Mine" (4 / 5) (live) - 3. "Two Swords" - 6. "Rough Rider" - 8. "Ranking Full Stop" - 9. "Big Shot" - 10. "Whine & Grine / Stand Down Margaret" - 11. "Noise in This World" - 12. "Can’t Get Used to Losing You" - 13. "Best Friend" - 14. "Jackpot"
Studio album debut originally released on Go Feet Records by The Beat (aka The English Beat / aka The British Beat), a sextet founded in Birmingham 1978 consisting of Dave Wakeling on lead vocals & rhythm guitar, Ranking Roger (aka Roger Charlery) on vocals & toasting, Andy Cox on lead guitar, David Steele on bass, Everett Morton on drums and with Saxa (aka Lionel Augustus Martin) on saxophone. The Beat released its first single releases on 2 Tone Records much like other ska revival acts like The Selector, The Specials and Madness. The Beat then signed with mother-label Arista and formed its own sub-label Go Feet Records. The name of the band was The Beat; however, because of an American band with that name (later identified as Paul Collins' Beat), they were launched as The English Beat in North America and as The British Beat for the Australian market. The original album release contains 12 tracks, the US re-issue comes with two bonus tracks (#5, "Tears of a Clown" and #8, "Ranking Full Stop" both of which had been released in '79 as a 7'' single (by 2 Tone). Much like The Specials and Madness, The Beat was highly inspired by the original Jamaican ska and also covered songs by Prince Buster - here: tracks #5 and 8, and the band's saxophone player, Saxa, had in fact played with Prince Buster and other Jamaican acts.
Stylistically, The Beat plays "2-tone" new wave in an original blend with 2-tone and pop reggae, which puts the band in the same drawer as Madness, The Specials, The Selecter and Bad Manners, but The Beat still sounded quite original with its bold focus on new wave, which in another way linked the band close to bands like The Clash, Magazine and Squeeze.
The album was met by critical acclaim and it peaked as high as #3 on the British albums chart list, and the best faring single, track #1 reached #4 on the singles chart list in the UK.
It's quite an achievement to produce this list of quality songs on the band's debut, also because many songs point in various stylistic directions: #1, 11 and 13 are tight new wave compositions, #5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 are fine 2-tone songs with harmonic pop reggae, and track #2, one of my favourites, is the sheer positive conglomerate of all styles in one song.
Highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Spin 5 / 5, Smash Hits 4,5 / 5 stars ]
