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2 Tone Records exploded on the British music scene in the late ‘70s, when the genres of punk and ska collided. Although the music of 2 Tone is certainly more ska than it is punk, it sort of sounds like ska that was injected with too much adrenaline--or maybe ska on a sugar rush. There are times when the songs are so fast, you honestly can’t even dance to them. So you just sort of pogo around the room. (Hmm. Now I’m wondering if that’s how slam dancing started.)

I never heard a band who recorded with the 2 Tone label that wasn’t excellent. But my favorite, I think, were/are the Specials. And this, their debut album of the same name, is, in my opinion, their best. Not just because they covered a lot of great ska classics, but because their original songs are excellent, and emblematic of the times. There was a lot going on in Britain in the late 70s--high unemployment, significant racial tension, struggles in the working class--and the Specials captured all of it in their music.

There’s “Stupid Marriage,” about kids getting married too young, and for all the wrong reasons. Similarly, “Too Much, Too Young” focuses on how early pregnancy both robs kids of their youth and puts a burden on the taxpayer. “Nite Klub” criticizes the aimless youth who spend too much time, money and energy hanging out in bars. “Concrete Jungle” is about urban violence. There are songs about racism, too, something these most-often multi-racial bands knew a thing or two about.

But it’s the music that makes this album stand out. Not just Terry Hall’s unpolished, yet very fluid voice that totally captures working class Britain, but the raucous horns, the cool Farfisa organ, the almost lazy drumming on the slower tunes (and I mean that as a compliment, because only ska drummers can sound so deliciously leisure). Mostly, however, it’s that wonderfully uneven ska beat. Stewart Copeland, the drummer for the Police, once described it this way: Regular music beats go ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-three-four. But the ska beat is more like one-two-THREE-four, one-two-THREE-four. It’s just a little...off.

And it’s really, really cool. Not to mention imminently danceable, very smart, truly unique and surprisingly sophisticated in a lot of ways. And for those of us who came of age in the late 70s and loved all things British, it makes you feel like a kid again. Me, I’m off to look for my porkpie hat.