The Specials

★★★ Protest Songs 1924-2012 ISLAND. CD/DL/LP

How do you follow your first Number 1 album and mark 40 years since Ghost Town? Of course, every Specials’ song feels like a protest song, but fuelled by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter have scoured the globe for a dozen finger-pointing tunes that retain relevance. Results range from the radiofriendly but obvious (Get Up, Stand Up) to the obscure but with not a word out of place: The Dixie Jubilee Singers’ Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around and Big Bill Broonzy’s Black, Brown And White. Hall’s delivery of the darkest lines sparkles on Frank Zappa and Leonard Cohen lyrics, while Chip Taylor’s Fuck All The Perfect People could have been written for him. And if you ever moan that the current band doesn’t sound like Jerry Dammers’ group, try their take on Talking Heads’ Listening Wind. Still fighting the good fight.