It feels like we’ve been reporting for years on this new album on the way from The English Beat. The band started a Pledgemusic campaign in 2014, teased new songs, started playing those new songs on tour, and now the new release seems more real than ever.
The first single is called “How Can You Stand There” and I’m fairly confident they played it at their recent sold out show at Brighton Music Hall. It both sounds like a ‘classic’ English Beat song and has that new hi-fi shine. Listen below on Spotify. The album is available for pre-order, sort of, from Pledgemusic in the form of rewards packages. It’s unclear when the album ships because Dave is going to drag this release out as long as possible. In his defense, he’s been touring almost nonstop probably since the crowdfunding campaign started. I think if I had gone as long as he had between releases, I’d want to take my time and get it right.
Here’s the track listing:
- How Can You Stand There?
- The One and the Only
- Redemption Time
- If Killing Worker
- Here We Go Love
- Never Die
- The Love You Give
- You Really Oughtta Know
- You’re Stuck
- Every Time You Told Me
- Dem Call It Ska
- Drive Her Away
- Be There For You
It’s worth noting that Ranking Roger’s UK-based version of The Beat released an excellent new record in 2016 called “Bounce.” We hope Roger gets a chance to bring his band to the states soon! We’re of the belief that more beat is good beat. And mea culpa for not making noise about that release when it happened.