More Specials

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More Specials

Studio album by The Specials

Released

October 1980

Recorded

Genre

Ska

Length

45:32

Label

2Tone Records

Producer

Jerry Dammers

Professional reviews

The Specials chronology

Specials
(1979)

More Specials
(1980)

In the Studio (as The Special AKA)
(1984)

More Specials is an October 1980 (see 1980 in music) album from the ska band The Specials. The album was the band's second, after Specials, and expanded the group's ska punk sound to include lounge music and other influences. It includes collaborations with The Go-Go's, Rhoda Dakar from The Bodysnatchers and Lee Jay Thompson from Madness. The lyrics, like the previous album, were often intensely political and expressed outrage over the perceived hypocrisies of the UK government.

On the charts, the album hit the Top Five in the UK, where "Rat Race", "Stereotype" and "Do Nothing" hit the Top Ten. "Rat Race" hit #89 on Billboard Music Chart's (US) Club Play Singles chart, while the album as a whole hit #98 on Billboards Pop Albums chart.

Although More Specials was a hit in the two-tone movement, a late-1970s revival of Jamaican ska from the 1960s, it is broadly considered as one of the first 'lounge music' albums with far less emphasis on ska beats that its preceding album. Along with bands like the Bodysnatchers and Madness, The Specials would go on to be a leader in this revival, and later heroes for two further ska-punk revivals on the opposite side of the Atlantic: the late 1980s Southern California scene (NOFX, Operation Ivy) and the mid-1990s "third wave of ska" (Sublime, No Doubt) which popularised the mixture.

The Track 'Hey, Little Rich Girl' has been covered by Amy Winehouse