In Britain, {|The (English) Beat|} were moving very much in the wrong direction, as their chart placements made clear. {|Save It for Later|} released in April 1982, barely made the Top 50, {|Jeanette,|} their new album's taster, just brushed Number 4... Read more

In Britain, {|The (English) Beat|} were moving very much in the wrong direction, as their chart placements made clear. {|Save It for Later|} released in April 1982, barely made the Top 50, {|Jeanette,|} their new album's taster, just brushed Number 45, {|I Confess|} didn't even chart, probably because it's flip {|Sole Salvation|} was also culled off the album, while {|Ackee 1 2 3|} played outside the Top 50. The slippage had started with {|Wha'ppen|}, as the group had veered sharply away from their frenetic roots, {|Special Beat Service|} would take them even further from their early {|punk|}-fired fury. Still, {|Wha'ppen|} still boasted cultural themes, its angry and angsty lyrics sharply edging the set. {|Service|} didn't even have that, and after two Top Three albums, the group were forced to settle for a placement just outside the Top Twenty. But in the US their sun was on the ascendant, and a band who had yet to place a platter into the Top 100 suddenly found itself with a Top Forty hit album. The singles that barely scratched the charts in the UK found happy homes in the clubs, slotting nicely around the mix of {|New Wave|} and burgeoning {|New Romantic|} numbers American clubbers craved. And so {|I Confess|} with its {|Joe Jackson|}-esque piano line, {|Dave Wakeling|}'s sweet vocals soaring towards heaven, the jazzy sax, all cossetting the insistent drums and bouncing tablas; the fast and furious {|Jeanette|} with its French street flair and ever more surreal rhymes; {|Save It|}'s superb blend of jangly {|Byrd|}- esque guitars and stomping beats; {|Salvation|}'s nod to {|mod|} that hints at {|The Jam|}'s {|Beat Surrender|} which arrived the same month; and the {|calypso|} party atmosphere of {|Ackee,|} all set listeners feet tapping. These were the ones that hit with the DJs, but the whole set was equally worthy, and moves onto the dancefloor with abandon. Producer {|Bob Sargeant|} gives it all a bright and brash sound, which may not have favored more {|reggae|}-heavy numbers like {|Spar Wid Me|} and {|Pato and Roger a Go Talk,|} but {|The Beat|} were diving into the {|New Wave|} with gusto, and the production emphasizes those currents. Songs like {|Sugar & Stress|} where the sax storms across the driving rhythm, whilst still retaining the {|Brit-Beat|} flavor of the guitars and keyboards were a revelation. Even a more downbeat number like the gorgeous {|End of the Party|} glows under his attentions. In it's own way {|Service|} was just as musically adventurous as its predecessor, and boded well for the group's future. Or would have if {|The Beat|} hadn't celebrated their success by promptly calling it a day. The music however lives on in all its glory. ~ Jo-Ann Greene Less