Album reviews

SKA

The Beat, featuring Ranking Roger, Public Confidential (DMF)

The Big Four multiracial British ska bands that emerged in the post-punk eruption were the Specials, Madness, the Selecter, and the Beat. The latter formed in Birmingham in 1978, and along with the Specials were caustic observers of, and commentators on, various social and political issues. The Beat, however, had a special weapon in their arsenal: an ensemble of watertight musicians and an ...