More... Or Less: The Specials Live

Recorded on a European tour in 2011, More... Or Less. The Specials Live finds most of the original lineup of the highly influential British ska godfathers (ska-dfathers?) running through spirited live versions of their classic first two albums and more notable singles, mostly in chronological order. Their 1979 debut was basically a polished recording of a powerful band running through their live set in the studio, and the lack of production and pretension helped make it the basic blueprint for countless ska upstarts the same way the Ramones' no-nonsense debut did for punk a few years prior. Thirty-some years later, the band has retained some of the same energy of those early days, and some of the youthful spirit and bile comes through on this by-the-numbers live album. The band sounds sharp, with a refreshing lack of the updates or cheesy re-envisionments that often get tacked on to songs after playing them countless times over a series of decades.