Tonight’s selections from the English Beat’s first album, 1980’s I Just Can’t Stop It.
Along with the Specials and the Selecter, Birmingham, England’s the Beat were part of a racially integrated “2 tone” movement that mixed Jamaican ska and U.K. punk. Their debut is at once jubilant and caustic, setting sharp dispatches on the same less-than-zero solipsism Elvis Costello and the Clash were singing to the tense, serpentine grooves of “Mirror in the Bathroom” and “Twist and Crawl.” They buoyantly cover Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown,” deliver skanking anti-fascist politics (“Stand Down Margaret”), and top it off with the incisive guitar-pop sunburst of “Best Friend.” — Rolling Stone #14 'Best Albums of the 1980s'
Mirror in the Bathroom
The Beat, or The English Beat, as they were known in the states, were a musical super nova that burned bright for about four years and then abruptly broke up while they were still successful. Sporting a mix of Caribbean rhythms and punk rock energy, they were a natural to ride the ska revival of the early 80s, but The Beat were always way more than ska imitator wannabes. With at least three band members with bona fide reggae/ska musical roots, The Beat had an authenticity and natural nimble grace to their music that was not matched by their counterparts in the two tone movement. All of this was on full display when they released their opening opus, "I Just Can't Stop It", one of the best dance-able art pop albums in the 80s or in any decade.
In a manner similar to other rhythmically kinetic groups such as The Meters or the JBs, everything great about The Beat starts at the drum set and works its way forward from there. Everett Morton is one of the most overlooked innovative drummers in contemporary music. His ability to play syncopated Caribbean rhythms at break neck tempos made The Beat an irresistible sonic force. Add to that beat foundation a driving dub style bass, two interlocking guitars and Saxa's melodic Jamaican horn lines and you have a rich sonic tapestry. The icing on the cake was the duo vocals of Englishman Dave Wakeling and the Jamaican toasting and harmonies from Ranking Roger which gave The Beat a broad pallet of vocal deliveries.
The icing on the icing is the fact that these guys could write great songs and lyrics that were often either politically clever or sardonically dismayed with relationships. On "I Just Can' Stop It", they also include some creative covers that blend well with their originals. There are no bad cuts on here, but if you are looking for the high energy barn-burners, try "Click Click", "Noise in this World" or "Two Swords". — Music Archives
Hands Off... She's Mine
What makes the band so full of substance and flexible? Having two vocalists helps this as each one has their distinctive style and adds their specialty when needed. Maybe you like Dave Wakeling's more traditional and relaxed delivery. Indeed he is the more featured and worked singer in the band equation, but he does in no way overshadow the rougher quicker vocals of Ranking Roger. Indeed Rogers quick vocal stabs, toasts (think Jamaican rapping), and free styling over bridge sections of songs perfectly compliments Wakeling's sticking with the song structure. The versatility of the voice behind the band is only one of the bands dynamics though, another one being the guitar play between guitarists Dave Wakeling and Andy Cox. Highlights of said guitar playoffs can be found in the tracks Click Click and Noise in This World. Of course there would be no room for different singers, sax solos and accompaniment, or guitars playing at the same time if not for a solid rhythm section. This is achieved with drummer Everett Morton and bassist Dave Steele (not to be confused with kazoo virtuoso Dave de Sylvia). The drum and bass section play introduction to many of the tunes, including Twist and Crawl and Big Shot.
Without knowing it, you may have heard this band through a radio station playing old songs that not many people know the titles to. If you recall it having a "reggae/slow" feel with a sax playing in the back and a chorus consisting of the line "hands off shes mine", then you are thinking of the right song. Back before the release of this CD, Hands Off Shes Mine was released as a single the year after the opening track Mirror in the Bathroom also received single treatment. With previous releases intact and chart reaching in England, its not like this band came out of nowhere, but to people listening for this new noise of two tone (second wave, ska) they were a very refreshing bunch. I Just Can't Stop It enjoys remaining very consistent in the short (but not Angry Samoans short) time it lasts though. Songs featuring content about many issues, personal and political are featured on here, and they are both of quality. [...]
Interesting musicianship, a much enjoyable sound, and sax solos make I Just Can't Stop It one of the great first second-wave ska records. It does such a great job of laying down the blueprint and allowing other bands to use what was recorded here into making their records and sound. Needless to say, this is a good starting point for anyone interested in ska (in any form) or for those who want a hip and alive record. — Sputnik Music
Tears of a Clown
Which is perhaps why only this debut album has found a place in British music’s fickle memory banks. I Just Can’t Stop It, with its delicious claret, white and black pop-art cover and relentless danceability, feels entirely comprised of hit singles (and six of the 12 tracks were, including double A-sides). Its fusion of black and white musical influences and anti-racist defiance makes it as perfect an example of the 2 Tone era as anything by The Specials or Madness.
What quickly undid The Beat, apart from Wakeling’s lack of X factor, was the increasing disconnect between the catchy, carnivalesque music and morbid, self-lacerating lyrical themes. When 1981’s Wha’ppen? and 1982’s Special Beat Service – also deservedly reissued here with a slew of bonus material – failed commercially, The Beat split, with Wakeling and Roger going on to minor US success as General Public, and bassist Cox and guitarist Steele hitting the mother lode alongside Roland Gift as Fine Young Cannibals.
As with the majority of post-punk bands, The Beat’s natural sense of musical adventure and bleak worldview wouldn’t mesh comfortably with 80s pop’s rediscovery of glam aesthetics and upward mobility. But I Just Can’t Stop It remains one of British pop’s most lovable and ebullient albums, and the kind of politicised party album they just don’t make anymore. — BBC
Ranking Full Stop
This gets at why America can’t really be blamed for getting ska wrong. When the Specials were issuing frantic urban battle reports like "Concrete Jungle" and plainspoken pleas for tolerance like "Doesn’t Make It Alright", it had only been 30 years since a wave of West Indian immigration brought Jamaican culture to Britain’s cities, challenging traditional notions of Englishness. Thanks to newcomers from Kingston, ska and reggae were known quantities—sounds that sometimes went pop but mostly fueled underground dance parties. Some of the first whites to champion the music were members of the skinhead subculture—a working-class movement that, before becoming tainted by white supremacists, borrowed its look and listening habits from Jamaican immigrants.
In America, youth cults like skinhead, rude boy, and mod—all fashionable in Britain during 2 Tone—have never really translated. More crucially, the racial dynamics in the States have always been very different than those that begat 2 Tone. Here, tensions between blacks and whites stem from centuries of slavery and institutional racism. To the extent this ugliness helped birth beautiful music, it’s been in the form of jazz, blues, rock, and soul—not reggae or ska, which by 1980 had really only reached mainstream America via Bob Marley and The Harder They Come.
That history helps to explain why the Specials, the English Beat, and Madness were one- or two-hit wonders in the U.S. Their lack of success might also have had to do with poor marketing, bad luck, or that old criticism about being "too British." Regardless, Americans not hip to New Wave or college radio missed some vibrant artists whose black-and-white contradictions informed everything from their outfits and album art to their songwriting. They were joyous and pissed, hopeless and idealistic, nostalgic and innovative. These contrasts made for some of the most unforgettable records of the post-punk era. — Pitchfork
Best Friend
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Click Click
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WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Peyton Manning, Emma Roberts, The War and Treaty, guest host Kathryn Hahn (R 7/9/24)
Jimmy Fallon: Pre-empted
Stephen Colbert: Glen Powell, Charlamagne Tha God (R 7/17/24)
Seth Meyers: Pre-empted
After Midnight: Alex Edelman, Jack McBrayer, Jackie Tohn (R 6/3/24)
Watch What Happens Live: Heather Dubrow, Zach Gilford
The Daily Show: Adam Kinzinger, Hong Chau, host Ronny Chieng
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