English Beat

Certain Songs #426: The English Beat – “Doors of Your Heart”

January 20, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Wha’ppen?
Year: 1981

So as often happens when you follow an energetic, epochal debut album with a slower, more experimental record, the people who loved that debut album tend to dismiss the follow-up. And so it went with me and The Beat’s second album, 1981’s Wha’ppen?

Which — I should point out — I bought on Christmas Day, 1982 (at Tower Records, natch!) a whole two months after I bought I Just Can’t Stop It. But it was a pretty big two months, as KFSR had finally gone on the air, and I’d also started the first real relationship of my adult life, so perhaps I wasn’t prepared to give Wha’appen? the attention it deserved.

Certain Songs #423: The English Beat – “Two Swords”

January 17, 2016 by Jim Connelly

All speedy beats and ringing guitars, “Two Swords” is yet another perfect punk-reggae hybrid, focusing more on the punk side of things, but retaining just enough offbeat rhythm power to be more of a punk-ska hybrid than anything else.

Unlike the early Clash punk-reggae hybrids where the guitars where chock full of punk distortion, The Beat dispense with all that, so the guitars on “Two Swords” are bright and shiny, even if the rest of the song is going at punk speed.

18 Musical Moments to Die For

April 20, 2009 by Jim Connelly

The Hold Steady, Wiltern, Los Angeles, Nov. 25, 2008

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve done one of these, but I’m back!! In black. (Which is a terrible choice, because it’s, like, 150 degrees today.)

This time, on Musical Moments to Die For, we have two of the greatest cover versions of two of the greatest songs ever recorded; druggy people writing songs about their drug problems, and casual rockstar sexism.

We also have the usual 80’s indie obscurity, and run the gamut from catchy artsy sophistication to catchy dumb-ass stomping crapola.

This is the eighth in a series: The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22, the fifth one had 21, and the sixth had 20, and the seventh had 19.