Second wave ska, playa-hatas! Obviously I'm aware of the fact that the only thing less cool than liking 2nd wave ska is liking 3rd wave ska. But you know what? The Specials were produced by Elvis Costello, The Selecter's song "Celebrate the Bullet" is rad, and so are the English Beat. Plus there's like 3 really good Madness songs too.

Aside from providing the music to the greatest racing sequence in cinematic history (starts at 2:45), the English Beat also wrote a bunch of perfect pop songs and were also... uh let's see here... well they were a racially integrated band? I guess that counts for something. They're like the Equals or Love! Plus after they broke up, the members split off to join one-hit wonders General Public, two-hit wonders Fine Young Cannibals, and no-hit wonders Big Audio Dynamite (well, no-hits after Ranking Roger joined them).

Anyways I was in a record store a year ago and the guy threw on "Mirror in the Bathroom" which was what totally re-ignited my "hey you know what? Ska is not always 100% terrible!" recollections. So I bought their Greatest Hits and found that I actually really like them. Here's a few tracks:



Mirror In The Bathroom
I Confess
Hands Off She's Mine (RMX)

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