Consumer Guide Album

The English Beat: Special Beat Service [I.R.S., 1982]
Careerwise, a conservative move--never has their four-four come on plainer, and when David Wakeling claims it's harder to write about the personal than the political, you're right to figure the songs will prove it. But David Steele can't resist a slight skank, and Everett Martin, who's such a pro he'd do Ringo imitations if they asked him, is also such a pro he can make any groove move. Anyway, Wakeling is always thoughtful about the irrational fear and real danger of letting go. The troubled decency of his modern romance, spilling over now and then into a barely discernible self-disgust, is the exact left-liberal equivalent of his social concern, of use to the great audience as well as the seekers after young lust and high infidelity he's aiming at. A-