The English Beat releases a debut that ranks among the best ever

The English Beat : Best Friend

[Purchase]

In May of 1980 The English Beat released I Just Can't Stop It, their critically acclaimed debut album and a UK#3 hit. The album still thrills decades later with four memorable singles, Tears Of a Clown ( UK#6) , Hands Off...She's Mine ( UK#9) Mirror In The Bathroom (UK#4), and Best Friend (UK#22).

Shocking to think they had only been together a little more than a year. The band was smart enough to found their own label, Go-Feet, which served as a buffer between The Beat and the major labels and gave the band the right to choose not just what singles they'd be releasing but the artwork. The  dancing girl is a nod to the young women who had come to see their shows.

The album thrilled critics on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone's Frank Rose wrote:

"They may be primitive, but they certainly aren't simple. I Just Can't Stop It is the most exhilarating surprise from Britain since Marianne Faithfull's Broken English."

The Village Voice's Robert Chrtistgau gave the album a grade of A-, writing:

Known simply as the Beat in England, and rightly so--their ska is deep and driven. Thank drummer Everett Martin, born St. Kitt's 1951, with roots from reggae to Armatrading, and bassist David Steele, born Isle of Wight 1960, who's parlayed the usual classical training into a rhythm kid's twist and crawl. That's a title, of course, naming a bass line that moved more feet than anything Bernard Edwards came up with in 1980. Riding atop the full frontal velocity are two lean, warm, modest voices, almost indistinguishable until Ranking Roger turns up the accent. Hidden below it are songs, most of them by covocalist David Wakeling. Lyric of the electoral year: "Stand Down Margaret."

And this from Smash Hits: