Ska is a musical grnea that just refuses to go away. Despite
\nconsumer apathy for the longest time, bands like Mighty Mighty
\nBosstones have carved out a healthy niche playing this upbeat,
\ndanceable reggae music and creating general, happy mayhem.<\/p>\n
Add The Selecter to the list of ska bands fighting for your
\nattention. Once known for their minor hit “Too Much Pressure” in
\nthe ’80s, the band is still slugging it out, as their latest
\nrelease
\nCruel Brittania<\/i> proves. Chances are this might be the first
\ntime you’ve ever heard of The Selecter; chances also are that once
\nyou give this disc a chance, you’ll be searching out other volumes
\nfrom the band.<\/p>\n
Pauline Black handles most of the lead vocals, creating almost a
\nGwen Stefani-like vibe to some of the songs. (Black, however, sings
\nbetter than Stefani.) The remaining vocals are shared by Dave
\nBarker and Richard Wayler, though I’ll admit I’d be hard-pressed to
\npinpoint which one sang lead on which song. (Sometimes, detailed
\nliner notes
\ndo<\/i> help.)<\/p>\n
The rhythms themselves are entertaining, even if the material
\nisn’t quite enough to set the speakers on fire. Tracks like
\n“Musical Servant (1927\/1998),” “Bad Dog” and the title track all
\nare light romps through ska land. Despite its title, “Cruel
\nBritannia” is anything but an editorial of the band’s homeland, and
\nin a way, I kind of wish the track had been a little more
\npolitical.<\/p>\n
\nCruel Britannia<\/i> does show a political side for the briefest
\nof moments, on the track “Respect Yourself”. (It also is the only
\ntrack that uses any type of profanity; be forewarned.) The funny
\nthing is, this is one of the best and most powerful moments on the
\nalbum, allowing Black and crew to become cutting-edge. The best
\ntrack on the album, interestingly enough,
\nisn’t<\/i> political; “Better Must Come” is a track that has
\neverything working in its favor, fro solid songwriting to a killer
\ndelivery.<\/p>\n
While I recognize that ska has a certain amount of “toasting” in
\nit (“The Viper”), I do question whether we needed a reprise of the
\nexact same toast (“Lyrical Sniper”) on the same album. However, I
\nguess the track is harmless enough.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, ska is an acquired taste, and The Selecter mixes
\nenough pop sensibility into the mix to appeal to even newcomers to
\nska.
\nCruel Britannia<\/i> is a disc that might not be given a fair
\nshake by most consumers, but those that do will find themselves
\nmildly pleased by it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7506],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39237","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-selecter","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39237"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}