Word: rhythm
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...this to be another white-group-seeks-its- Black-roots album, or was the most intellectual group in music today examining a purer form of rhythm and blues? This David Byrne and Brian Eno meet James Brown's godfather album is risky business; it is bound to alienate someone...
...after the two depart it cheapens a very subtle metaphor. And I confess I don't really understand the point of the jazz music that is played at the beginning and end of each act. Although it is beautiful, lonely music it has nothing to do with the rhythm of the production; if it did, it would have been a daring move to attempt to integrate it once or twice into the action. When it is cranked on at the end of the play, it helps to obliterate what is perhaps the most heartbreaking finale in all dramatic literature...
...think the essence of the English Beat can be found in "Whine & Grind/Stand Down Margaret." Over a walking-on-eggs reggae/ska rhythm, we hear a sweet sax, a polite guitar and vocals which pleasantly croon: "I see no joy/I see only sorrow/I see no chance/of a bright new tomorrow." Like I said, these guys throw a mean curveball...
...Specials, Selecter and Madness, the Beat juggle black and white music so quickly and deftly that one emerges from their debut album wondering how the hell they did it. Is the frenzied "Click Click" ska or rock & roll? What's a Mersey guitar line doing against a ska rhythm in "Best Friend"? Or, for that matter, a Byrds jingle-jangle guitar in "Two Swords...
Beats me. But I can say this: I just Can't Stop It is a landmark album. A good place to start is with their version of the old Smokey Robinson hit, "Tears of a Clown." Just after the grand introductory riff, the Beat pitches a rhythm that is speedy, tense, seemingly out of whack. Is this Motown or is it ska? Is the bass guitar chasing the sax or is it the other way around? With truckloads of scratchy guitar work, snaky bass runs and exotic sax passages, the Beat create a sound that is soulful, dangerous, irresistible...