Legendary 2 Tone ska act The Specials this week released its first single with original lead frontman Terry Hall since 1981’s “Ghost Town,” a lilting new song called “Vote For Me” that is the first cut to surface off the band’s forthcoming reunion album Encore.
Listen to the full track below.
The new album is due out Feb. 1, and features original Specials members Hall (vocals), Horace Panter (bass) and Lynval Golding (guitar), but not chief songwriter Jerry Dammers, who never participated in the band’s now-decade-old reunion, or Roddy Radiation and Neville Staple, who both left the reunited group in recent years. Drummer John Bradbury died in 2015.
The new record is produced by Hall, Panter, Golding and Nikolaj Torp Larsen, a keyboardist who joined The Specials as a touring member in 2008. In addition to Larsen, the album features drummer Kenrick Rowe and Ocean Colour Scene guitarist Steve Craddock, who has been touring with the band since 2014.
Encore is being advertised as “their first new album in 37 years,” though that math doesn’t add up even if you do exclude the multiple albums released by the reunited Specials in the 1990s and 2000s.
Following the release of 1979’s The Specials and 1980’s More Specials, and the recording of “Ghost Town,” Hall left the band — which continued for one more album, 1984’s In the Studio, under the Special AKA moniker. Between 1996 and 2001, reunited versions of the group — sans Hall — released three covers albums (Today’s Specials, Skinhead Girl and Conquering Ruler), plus 1998’s Guilty ’til Proved Innocent!, which featured new songs by original and new members of the band.
Check out the new single from The Specials below.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS:
- The Specials to release new album ‘Encore’ — first recordings with Terry Hall since ‘Ghost Town’
- The Specials announce 12-date tour of Canada and the U.S. coasts in June
- The Specials to reissue 3 original studio albums in expanded 2CD deluxe editions
- The Specials returning to North America this summer for second leg of tour
- The Specials begin rolling out dates for first leg of North American tour this March
Wow! Sounds great! Looking forward to hearing the new album.
yawn
‘you tore our families apart ” hum wonder if there might be another side to the reasoning behind that ?
Sounds way too similar to Ghost Town, bit of a lazy effort really.
Then again, I’m a Depeche Mode fan, Id know all about that ; )
That’s what I thought, sketches of Ghost Town.
And the cover? Let’s hope that’s a place holder for the real cover that will hopefully be revealed soon.
sounds like ghost town + a retooled quiet village
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnq2Z2Iu9S4
listen at 1:00
It’s quite a pleasant song, but in the 30 + years since Ghost town, there have been so many styles of music and production values, none of which have rubbed off on The Specials.
Catchy tune, good to hear The Specials have not lost there ground roots sound, really looking forward to hearing more and catching up with them on tour in 2019.
I was super excited to see this…but super disappointed to find a complete rehash of ‘Ghost Town.’