#177
July 1984
The Specials
In The Studio
2.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Nelson Mandela
Released after the band broke up, In the Studio bears such little resemblance to that classic first Specials album that I hardly recognize the band. “The Lonely Crowd” & “What I Like Most About You is Your Girlfriend” are darker than I recall the band being. Dank, not bright, almost…sad…Dammers has a lot on his mind and it’s not MTV to be sure. The songs don’t go anywhere, though and everything is overproduced to the point where I want to just turn it off. You think, after the drone of stuff like “Girlfriend” and “Housebound” that the uptempo “Night on the Tiles’ would cure those ills but it doesn’t. There is nothing here to recommend except the international protest song, “Nelson Mandela”, which is, by all accounts, excellent.
The record has a LOT to say. “War Crimes”, “Racist Friend”, but they say it such a pedantic and uninspired way.
https://open.spotify.com/album/03yc9LjJUWQ9rekVLlBHBw?si=Xb7VWEgkTouBFMdWjw0RaQ
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